Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
by SuperCasshern
Summary: Farkle loves Maya, but Maya loves Lucas...doesn't she? In a world full of teenage emotions and mixed signals, the group will have to navigate their last year of middle school while their new friend Ezra tries to keep his friends' heads screwed on straight.
1. Stoop Sale

**Author's note:  
** **I wrote this not too long before "Girl Meets Texas" and I've been debating if I should post it or not. They say that nothing ventured...anyway, here's a short story about my favorite non-couple. Also, I'm not used to FanFiction's story uploader so if this comes out all wonky please bear with me. Oh, one more thing. This story was meant to cross into another set of stories I wrote so there are two characters that show up, but they're not here long enough to really have an impact on anything. I'm sure you'll figure out who they are.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Stoop Sale

.

"Seriously? Why are we going to this thing?" Maya Penelope Hart wondered out loud. She ran her fingers though her lightly curled dirty blonde hair and straightened her black leather vest. Her best friend in the world, Riley Matthews, had convinced the rebellious blonde to spend their three day weekend in a flurry of second-hand store shopping, movie matinees, and possibly attending Farkle's _"Three Days of Freedom"_ party, the last of which took place on that very night.

Maya didn't want to admit it, but their little Farkle had come a long way from brightly colored turtleneck sweaters and history dioramas. Though he still wore mostly black like his alter-ego Donnie Barnes, his wardrobe expanded to include splashes of color here and there. In fact yesterday he had worn what was potentially Maya's favorite combination of a black hoodie, blue jeans and hi-tops, with a bright red shirt that read _"Fries Matter"_ in bright yellow block font. It was by far the dumbest thing she had ever read, but for some reason it was adorable on him.

"Earth to Maya!" Riley yelped as she snapped her fingers in front of her friend's face. "If you're gonna complain about our plans you can at least listen to me remind you why we're going."

Maya shook the images from her head and made eye contact with her friend. "Okay, why are we going?"

"Because we promised Farkle."

And there it was, the one thing Maya had no witty comeback for. A promise was a promise, especially when it was made to someone as loyal as Farkle. Without saying a word she slipped on her well-worn combat boots and swung open the Matthews' front door. "Alright then, Dorothy," she said with a grin, "we're off to see the wizard!"

.

The sun shown bright upon the streets of New York as the two teenagers made their way down the road past families enjoying their time together and power joggers walking their Pomeranian puppies. The two girls ooh'd and ah'd at all the knicknacks and chotchkies in the horrifically overpriced stores and tried on every frilly dress and Egyptian cotton scarf they could find.

While Riley ran like a maniac around the pink foofy section of some high-end department store Maya opted to browse the flea market that took up one end of the park across the street. Tables adorned with cheap penny tees and home-made jewelry were spread across the park grounds like a giant shining snowflake. There were only a few places in this world where Maya Hart felt like she was at home; The Matthews' house, the art room at school, Topanga's coffee house, and now this market.

She came across a table full of vintage band shirts and decided to pick out a few. There was one in particular, a retro _Ted Nugent "Motor City Madhouse"_ shirt, that caught her eye.

 _Lucas might like this,_ she thought before immediately kicking herself mentally and dropping the shirt as if it were on fire. Ever since her little stunt during the whole yearbook debacle Maya had found herself thinking of the Southern gentleman more and more. It wasn't as if she could help it, the cowboy was just so sickeningly sweet and charming and handsome, what girl wouldn't go gaga over him?

Still, Riley would be broken beyond repair if she ever found out that her best friend was pining not only after her uncle, the boy-band hot Joshua Gabriel Matthews, but also her _"unofficial thing"_ Lucas Friar. Oh, but Lucas was someone worth pining for.

She shook everything off like so much dirt and picked out three shirts before heading to the cashier. As she handed the fifteen dollars to the pink-haired girl behind the table Maya felt a cold stare drilling into the back of her head. Whipping around she came face to face with her best friend.

"What kind of world do we live in where two glamorous young ladies such as ourselves can't afford at least one cashmere shawl!?"

Maya patted her bubbly cohort on the head and smiled, "Aw, pumpkin, it's because a Madeleine Thompson cable-knit cashmere wrap is NINE-HUNDRED AND TEN DOLLARS." Maya knew exactly which shawl she was talking about, Riley had pined for it every day after school. They had visited the store so many times that eventually the sales people stopped asking them if they needed help and just let them be.

Riley huffed, "It's a crime against humanity."

"Of course it is." Maya replied while tossing her the lime green _Shonen Knife_ shirt she had picked out for her friend. "Now c'mon, I hear that weird old lady Zenobia is having another stoop sale. Remember when she sold you the-"

"PINK BUNNY SLIPPERS!" Riley yelled before running off.

.

"I'm telling you this little trinket grants wishes!" the elderly Zenobia Palmyrene yelled at one of her customers while she fixed her dentures.

The young man standing before her looked skeptical, "Okay, you're gonna have to explain that one to me." he said as he reached for the large brass buckle that was the topic of their conversation.

Without warning the fiery old woman slapped his hand away. "You punk, I didn't finish explaining!"

"Hey, Mrs. Palmyrene." Riley said as the two girls skipped up to her trinket-covered table. "Why are you hollering at the handsome man with the nice head of hair and the rippling muscles hidden underneath the gray shirt with the weird phrase on it and the Army fatigue jacket with the equally weird phrase on it?"

Maya scrunched her nose, "How do you know he's got muscles?"

The handsome man in question removed his jacket that read _"I'm with the HIPPIES"_ and flexed.

"Okay, how did you know that?"

Riley smiled, "I've studied how Lucas' jacket sits on his shoulders."

Maya patted her friend's head again, "You're adorable when you're obsessed."

"Oi!" old lady Zenobia yelled, "I'm explaining what this buckle does, I don't care who listens at this point!" She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "As I was saying, this little trinket grants wishes. It can make anything you eat delicious, it can take away concerns so you can sleep at night, and make the love of your life and you reunite." she smiled softly at that one, "It can right the wrongs in your past or your future, BUT-" she slapped Riley's hand away, "-it'll only do one thing so when you take possession of it whatever you wish it'll cling to."

The handsome man with the nice hair scoffed, "That sounds like magic."

"It is."

"Magic isn't real."

"Says the boy with the washboard for a stomach."

He blushed hard at that."Anyway," he covered, "you got any proof that it works?"

Zenobia smiled, "Of course! I got this buckle from a pawn shop in Chicago when I was about your age. The old man told me the same thing I told you now so I made a wish, I wished that my husband would come back from Laos and spend the rest of his life with me. Sure enough, six months later, he showed up on our doorstep wearing something like you are now-" she pointed to the handsome man's jacket, "-and swore to the Lord that he would never leave me again. He never did."

"AAAAAAAAAAWWWWW!" the two girls sighed.

The handsome one laughed, "That's a coincidence, there's no way-"

 _"Fredward Leonard Benson!"_

The group turned, running up to them was a silver-haired old man wearing a black coat and slacks with a white button up. His brows were furrowed and looked like Hellfire while his smoky blue/green eyes barely contained the insanity behind them. He bee-lined it right up to the table.

The handsome one _(apparently named Fredward)_ dropped into some kind of Karate stance. "What the heck? What's your problem? How do you know who I am?" he asked hysterically.

The old man looked him over and shook his head, "What're you doing? Stop standing like that, you look like a drunk flamingo!"

"Oh, Doctor!" Zenobia said cheerfully, "What brings you back here? Saving the world again?"

The old man _(a doctor of some kind one would assume)_ gave her a toothy grin, "Zen! Not saving the whole world this time, just his." He grabbed Fredward's arm and began to drag him away, "We need to talk, now c'mon." He turned back to the trio of females, "I'll bring him right back, promise."

"Keep 'em!" Zenobia replied, "He wasn't gonna spend any money anyway!"

"Should we be concerned at all about whatever that was?" Riley asked as they watched the old man force Fredward around the corner.

"Probably not," Maya replied, "I'm sure we'll be too occupied with something much more personal to even remember that this happened. Now then!"

The girls turned back towards the table and put on their most sickeningly sweet smiles. "Heeeeeeeeey, Mrs. Palmyrene!" they said in unison.

"Giiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrls!" she replied in an equally sweet tone, "What can I do for you posh young things? Can I interest you in some wooden angels? I whittled them myself. Or maybe a hand mirror? The handle's broken, but it's still pretty nice. It dates back to the early fifties! Or maybe-"

"Does this actually grant wishes?" Riley interrupted, pointing to the brass buckle.

Mrs. Palmyrene laughed and picked up the trinket, "Oh, of course it does. It brought my Reginald home to me. It gave me the happiest moments of my life. It gave me the saddest one, too, but life moves on." She placed it back on the table and sighed, "It doesn't work for me anymore so I thought it was time to pass it along."

"That's pretty amazing, don't you think, Maya?" Riley turned and was greeted by an empty space. At the other end of the table she saw her friend engrossed in something. Riley smiled and walked over. "What'cha got there, peaches?"

Resting in Maya's hands were two thick metal plates, no wider than her palm and pock marked with age, linked together with well-worn brown leather straps. The larger plate was engraved with _"04-30-1926"_ while the smaller one read _"06-22-1926 / 11-19-2006."_

"What are these?" she asked softly.

Zenobia gently took them from her hands, "These," she said, "belonged to my husband and I. There was a time," she began in a hushed tone, "it was after Reginald came home from the war, he was working in a machine shop after being discharged from the Army. We didn't have much money back then, always just scraping by, so one year when it was especially bad Reggie and I were forced to sell our wedding rings just to make rent."

Riley began to tear up, "That's horrible."

"Yes it was," Zenobia replied, "I was rather devastated over the whole thing. That is until Reggie came home with these." She held up the metal plates and smiled, "He made these bracelets for us on his lunch breaks out of some scrap metal and an old welder's jacket. We got new rings again eventually, but we never took these off. Never ever."

"What...what happened?" Maya asked. "Why are they on the table?"

The kind old woman pointed to the smaller plate, "Both of them have our birthdays on them, mine on Reggie's and his on mine. Mine has another date on it."

Maya looked at the dates. They encompassed about eighty years, just about the lifespan of a human being. "I'm sorry." she said.

She placed the items back in Maya's hands, "I know what it's like to not have something the symbolize your love for someone, hopefully someone will put these old things to good use."

"How much?"

Riley turned to her golden haired friend, the plates were firmly clutched in her tiny palms. "Maya, what're you-"

"And the buckle, too."

The old woman held out her hand, "You got twenty bucks?"

Without missing a beat the blond beauty reached into her pocket and slapped a ten and two fives into Zenobia's palm. "I don't know, Riles," Maya said, "I just...I think these are gonna be really important to me some day."

The old woman reached over to pick up the buckle and held it up to Maya.

"Go for it, Riles." Maya said while motioning to the item.

"What?" Riley was taken aback, "You...you don't want your one wish?"

Maya smiled, "You're better at wishing than I am. I'm sure you'll think of something that'll make the world a better place."

"There's one more thing before I hand this over," Zenobia interrupted, "this thing is VERY particular about phrasing, it's like a cocky English major. When you think about your wish you need to focus on how you word it in your head."

"Okay?" Riley replied.

"I wished for Reginald to spend the rest of his life with me," Zenobia explained, "and he did. Then he died. I should've wished for me to spend the rest of my life with him because not a day goes by that I don't miss that man."

Riley thought for a moment before turning to Maya. "You and Farkle and Lucas are my best friends." She gently plucked the brass item from the wizened woman's fingers and closed her eyes. After a moment she opened them and smiled.

"What'chu wish for, sweetie?" Maya asked.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure we'll all find out together."


	2. Norwegian Wood

**Author's note: Lyrics to "Anna Sun" probably belong to Walk the Moon. Give them a listen, their music really helped me through the writing process.**

* * *

Chapter 2: Norwegian Wood

.

 _"Smackle!"_

It was too late, the adorably awkward brunette had pushed her way through the teeming sea of party goers and had blasted through the front door before Farkle Minkus could call after her.

It had been a long day for the flirtatious protege; countless hours were spent gathering party favors, setting up decorations and refreshments, sending out invitations, not to mention the four hours he dedicated to building a power-point presentation on why it was okay for his parents to let him have a party in the Downtown apartment _(one of three)_ for the night. Indeed, it had been a massive undertaking, practically impossible for just one Farkle to accomplish. If it wasn't for a few dedicated friends he would never have gotten it together in time. Though he would admit had he known his day would end with the utter destruction of his academic rival's heart he wouldn't have gone through all the trouble.

"Oi, you alright, Farkle?"

Farkle turned to find his newest friend Ezra Mizugaki, recent transfer student and founder/instructor of the school's Lightsaber Dueling Club _(the co-founder being Farkle of course)_ , leaning against the nearest wall holding a red plastic Solo cup. Though they never had a history class together, Farkle would always sit next to him in English, a subject that Ezra excelled in so much so that the stocky raven-haired boy would tutor Farkle in it in exchange for Farkle tutoring him in science.

Ezra adjusted his glasses and pointed at the front door, "She really flipped out, man. What did you say to her?"

Farkle shook his head, "Nothing, just the same thing I told you."

Ezra's eyes went wide and the giant pull he had taken from his cup threatened to explode from his mouth. "Dude, that's not nothing, that's-" he paused abruptly before looking around. "Let's take a walk, man." he said while motioning to the less crowded kitchen.

Farkle knew this was coming, his friend had been warning him all week. Though they only met once Ezra could tell that Isadora Smackle was overly sensitive. Forget that she was socially inept, forget that she had Asperger's syndrome, the poor girl was only fourteen and anyone that age would be crushed by the news Farkle had just laid out for her.

He had done a good job of hiding his predicament from his other friends. Something that he felt guilty for after promising them that there would be no more secrets, but it was impossible for him to just tell one without the others finding out.

Ezra shooed Yogi and his amazonian girlfriend Darby away from the punch bowl before refilling his cup with the neon green liquid. "So, let's start from the top." he said before taking a swig.

"Well," Farkle started, "I told her that even though we have a lot in common I just didn't think it would work out."

"And what did she say?"

"She asked if she had done something to change my opinion of her."

Ezra shook his head, "Well, that was a trap."

"Clearly, but...I answered her truthfully and she started to cry."

"Did she figure it all out?" Ezra asked rhetorically.

"Of course. Just because emotions are difficult for her to understand doesn't make her less of a genius. It...it was the logical conclusion."

"And that's when she bolted out the door." Ezra said while pointing to the living room. He took another tug from his cup and set it down on the counter, "So what's the next course of action?"

Farkle shook his head, "I don't know, I'm starting to regret all of this."

"Well obviously the timing could've been better," Ezra agreed, "but you're in the thick of it now so you need to come up with something. Shouldn't be too hard for a future benevolent dictator like yourself."

"I have no idea what I'm doing." Farkle poured himself a drink and downed it in one shot, "I mean, what if this is a mistake? I've never doubted myself like this before. Okay, I doubt myself like this all the time, but this one is important." He began to pace around the kitchen's island, "What if it doesn't work? What if the whole _WORLD_ is against this?"

"Then you _FIGHT_ the world, man!" Ezra bellowed. He clenched his fists and held them up to Farkles face, "You fight! Punch, punch, _PUNCH_! Throw firsts until your knuckles crack and your fingers bleed because if this is half as important as you keep saying it is it'll be worth the risk even if you fail!"

Farkle stepped back, "Wow, you're really passionate about this. Why is that?"

Ezra deflated in an instant. "Man..." He picked his beverage up and took another drink, "I'll tell you some other time. Right now let's just focus on getting you ready for war."

"War?"

"Of course. Like Pat Benatar said, ' _love is a battlefield._ '"

"I have no idea who that is."

.

Maya's vision was coated in blinding rage as she stomped up to the Minkus' second floor apartment. Her and Riley had chanced upon the diminutive Smackle sobbing quietly across the street from the aforementioned building while on the way to Farlke's party. After several unsuccessful attempts to get the poor girl to speak she finally blubbered out an incoherent explanation about how Farkle had coldly tossed her aside. Before the best friends could get her to elaborate the pigtailed girl genius pushed them away and took off into the early evening.

"There has to be a reason," Riley said while trying to keep up with her friend, "Farkle wouldn't hurt her feelings on purpose."

Maya smiled that half smile she usually gave before verbally destroying someone, "Oh, I know, but we're gonna find out why he would hurt her feelings _by accident_."

The two made their way past the door man and up to the second floor. They stood there for a moment while Maya cracked her neck and shook the kinks out of her arms and legs.

"Maya, what are you doing?"

"Making an entrance." she replied. Suddenly the blond bombshell delivered a spinning back kick to Farkle's front door and almost blew it off it's hinges. "Where is he?!" she yelled at the now terrified party goers.

They all pointed to the kitchen's entrance where a stunned Farkle and Ezra stood. The two boys made a hasty retreat as Maya began stomping her way towards them.

"Wow, she's miffed." Ezra stated obviously. "It's actually kinda hot."

Farkle glared at him.

"Oh, not for you," Ezra replied, "you're gonna die. It's hot for me. No wonder you-"

 _"FARKLE MINKUS!"_

The lanky teen was pinned against the kitchen sink by what seemed to be a flurry of blonde hair and blue/green eyes. "H-hi, Maya. Welcome to my party..." he said nervously.

"Maya, don't kill him before we find out the whole story." Riley said as she tried to loosen her friend's grip on Farkle's collar.

Reluctantly letting go, Maya straightened out the creases she had made in his black _"Sweetie 3.14"_ shirt and took a step back. "Alright, Minkus, let's hear it." She crossed her arms and waited for a response.

Riley stepped forward, "We ran into Smackle downstairs, she said you hurt her. Badly. Now we both know-" she placed her hand on Maya's shoulder, "-that you wouldn't do that on purpose, so...what happened?"

Farkle sighed, "I did hurt her, I admit that. It was on purpose, BUT-" he threw his hands in front of him defensively, "-I didn't have any other choice. I mean, I suppose I did, but it would've just caused more pain for her down the road."

"What are you talking about?" Riley asked.

"Isadora asked me to the Einstein Academy formal and even though we have a lot in common I said no. I said no because I thought it wasn't fair to go with her when I li-I mean, because I-" Farkle squeezed the bridge of his nose and sighed. He just couldn't bring himself to squeak out the reason for a second time that night.

"Penny in the air, Farkle." Ezra said.

"Yeah."

The bispecled boy fixed the collar on his red Polo shirt before retrieving a cup of the cherry and pineapple-flavored punch and handed it to Riley, "Hi, you're adorable and brunette which would make you Riley Matthews, right?" He gave her a warm smile.

Riley nodded.

"These two have something very important to talk about and I need to dance. Will you dance with me?"

Riley shook her head, "Oh no, I can't. I have a-well, kind of a-"

"Boyfriend?"

"Sort of?"

Ezra smiled, "Well then, let's go make him jealous." He held out his hand and waited.

"Don't kill him?" Riley said to her still venomously upset friend.

"No promises." Maya replied.

"At least come tell me before you do." Riley took Ezra's outstretched hand and the pair slowly walked into the livingroom.

Maya watched the charmingly miss-matched couple until they were out of sight before turning back to Farkle. "Well?" she said impatiently.

"I'll explain, but can we do this somewhere private?" The nervous teen motioned to the kitchen's other exit, "There's a bedroom down the hall, no one's in there. I just...I don't want to do this in front of everyone."

Maya sighed, she should drag it out of him, she really should. She should wring Farkle's neck like a towel for making Smackle cry, but deep down she knew that he was sweet and kind and that he would never hurt someone unless he absolutely had to. "Fine. After you."

.

"Are you sure they're gonna be okay?" Riley asked. Though she didn't really want to dance Ezra had managed to convince her to at least take a seat on one of the many couches and allow the other two teens enough space to have their conversation.

Ezra smiled and tucked a stray curl of hair behind his ear. "They'll be fine I think. This needed to happen eventually, if only to ease Farkle's emotional burden."

"And that burden would be?" Riley pried.

"Not my place to say, dear."

"Why are you so invested in this?" she asked, "You just met him."

Ezra looked into the girl's eyes, "He was the first person who was nice to me here. I lost a lot of friends between my old home and New York and right now he's the best one I got."

"He is pretty amazing." Riley admitted, "I don't know what I'd do if he or Maya weren't in my life." She smiled at the memories of her best friends digging her out of trouble on numerous occasions. There wasn't a time when they weren't there for her and she would never be able to repay them for their kindness and love in her lifetime.

"You said you had a boyfriend, right?" Ezra asked.

She nodded, "Kind of. It's unofficial."

Ezra shook his head, "You're exactly like Farkle described you."

"Oh? And how's that?"

"Amazing," he replied making Riley blush, "amazing and kind and full of hope, but also hopelessly befuddled when it comes to boys. He also said something about a horrible French accent, but I'm sure that was a joke."

 _"Bonjour!"_ Riley replied with outstretched arms.

Ezra doubled over with laughter, "Oh Lord! Oh, this is the greatest moment of my life!" He wiped the tears of joy from his eyes and turned back to Riley, "You're so weird."

Riley smiled, "Yeah. Yeah I am."

"I love it."

The brunette girl blushed even deeper, though he wasn't exactly her type Ezra was only the fourth boy to ever say something like that to her.

"You're exactly like Farkle said." Ezra sighed, "Which means your friend Maya is exactly how he described, too. You two should probably stay away from me."

Riley twisted her face in confusion, "Why?"

"Because it would be so easy to fall for the both of you." He pursed his lips and turned away from the angelic girl, "I can see why Farkle's so terrified right now."

.

Maya couldn't believe her eyes. Though the room Farkle had led her to was of modest size, it was lined in Christmas lights and painted in shades of white and cream swirling together like the waves of an ocean cascading over a hard wood floor. In one corner was a work station covered in random tools and bits of technological gobbledygook and a simple desk lamp clamped to one edge. Across from it was a single bed with a plain blue sheet and a pair of memory foam pillows. On the wall above the bed, sitting in an oak frame was the pencil drawing of the city skyline she had given Farkle last year.

"This place is amazing." she said breathlessly.

"Welcome to my home away from home." Farkle said with a smile.

A cylindrical object on the work station caught Maya's eye, "What's this?" She picked it up and inspected it closely. It was a dull silver with black accents, bent at one end and what seemed to be half of a florecent light bulb sticking out of it. "Is this your _'laser sword'_ for the club you started?"

Farkle gently pulled the device from her hand, his fingers lightly brushing against hers. "It was," he replied, "I cracked the polycarbonite blade and the retention ring dueling Billy yesterday so I'm trying to fix it."

Maya barely heard what he said, her attention suddenly devoted to the tingling sensation Farkle's touch had left on her hand. "Wait, Billy? Billy Ross is in your club?"

Farkle placed the broken item back on the workbench, "Yep, he said he wanted to learn. Well, he wanted to learn because he fell into some old bullying habits and Ezra knocked him into the ground with one of our wooden training swords."

Maya laughed, "Wow, I guess the new kid is pretty strong then."

"I think he might be stronger than Lucas. Not sure though, a few more tests..."

There was that name again, that horrible name that made Maya's heart flutter like some ridiculous butterfly. "So," she said, clearing her throat and putting on her serious face, "you said you were gonna explain."

Farkle sighed and looked out of the room's lone window at the city lights. "Remember when everyone thought I was autistic?"

Maya nodded.

"I asked you and and Riley to make sure I knew what love really was. Isadora is amazing. She's smart and pretty and she outmatches me at everything academically. I like her a lot. But...I know what love is now, it's not something I have for her. Not in the way she wants from me anyway."

Maya impatiently blew a stray lock of hair away from her face, "Stop mincing words, Farkle, just say it. What, are you in love with Riley or something? Because news flash, everyone already knows that. In fact, I'm amazed that Hopalong hasn't thrown you in a trashcan considering you keep macking on his-" Maya's voice caught in her throat. She had ranted so much that she didn't notice Farkle closing the gap between them, she didn't notice his fingers entwine themselves with hers, but boy did she notice the way his blue eyes were peering into her soul.

"Riley's not the one I'm in love with."

Maya gathered enough strength to pull her quivering hand away from his, but she couldn't break eye contact with him. "You...you're joking. It's a bad joke, take it back."

The somber young man shook his head, "It's not a joke."

"Yes it is!" Maya screamed, "It's a joke! Take it back! Take...take it back." What an idiot, no one could love her, not like how she wanted. Her mother loved her, Shawn and the Matthews loved her, Riley loved her, but it wasn't the same. How could someone love, _romantically_ love, such a broken mess like her?

"I can't." he replied, "I've loved you since we were five. The only reason I even looked at Riley like that was because she was the other half of you, the thing that brought out your best. But you can do that on your own now. You were a great person before, but now that you've matured you're amazing. You're amazing and I want to be there when you become even better."

"Farkle," Maya squeaked as tears began welling up in her eyes, "why are you telling me all this? I didn't know you have feelings for me, not like this. Why though? Why are you telling me? I don't understand."

Farkle sat on the bed and clenched his fists, "Because...because I feel like if I don't do this now I'll never get the chance to later. I see how you look at him sometimes. You don't even know you're doing it, but I see."

Maya laughed nervously, "What? Josh? He's not-I mean, realistically it would never work-"

"Not him." Farkle interrupted, "You're not a mystery to me, Maya. Please stop pretending like you are."

Maya cast her eyes downward in embarrassment, "You mean Lucas."

"Exactly." He stood from the bed and prayed his second wind would carry him all the way to Maya's side. "I know that whatever you're feeling is probably eating you alive as it is. I know I'm making it worse, but I'm not sorry. Maya, you're spectacular and unique and you're the strongest person in the world. You're important, the most important person in my life and like Ezra said, if it's important it'll be worth the risk even if you fail."

"I don't know what to say to that." Maya whispered.

Farkle shrugged, "So don't say anything, it's enough that you listened to my _'statement of intent'_ without causing me any bodily harm." He motioned to the bed, "If you want, we can just sit for a while. Maybe think of something a bit more light-hearted to talk about."

She stepped back towards the door.

"Please." Farkle said, the desperation barely audible in his voice, "Please, don't go yet."

.

"Thanks for walking me home." Riley said as they approached her family's brownstone apartment. "You really didn't have to."

Ezra laughed as he retrieved his well-worn brown leather jacket from Riley's shoulders. "I know, I wanted to. And don't worry about Maya, I'll make sure she makes it back alright."

"I guess I'll see you in school on Monday?"

"I suppose," Ezra replied, "unless you sit in front of me in English again."

"We have English together?"

Ezra chuckled, "Goodnight, Riley. Sweet dreams."

.

"You know, I actually stay here by myself sometimes." Farkle said.

Maya looked at him quizzically. When Farkle had taken a seat against the bed she had opted for a spot on the plush blue-gray throw rug. "You stay here? Alone?" she asked.

He nodded. "This feels more like home then at my actual home. That's why I keep my dueling equipment here, it's why your picture is above this bed and not the one at my parent's place. It's also at the exact center between your house, Riley's place, and the subway. Give or take a city block of course."

Maya moved slowly to Farkle's right and leaned against the bed. "Why do you love me?" she asked quietly.

"I...I thought we covered this."

"We did," she replied, "but I want to hear it again."

Farkle cracked his neck and fumbled with the hem of his shirt for a moment. "Well," he started, "you're funny, you have a great sense of style, you're smart academically when you want to be." He risked moving closer to the timid vixen. "You're loyal, more than a lot of people would be. You're talented obviously-"

"Am I beautiful?" she asked, her fingers fiddling with the bracelets she had bought earlier that day.

Farkle turned to her shocked, "Of course you are. You're the most beautiful girl in the world. Why would you ask that?"

"No one's said that to me before, not like that anyway. My mom doesn't count."

"I've said that about you all the time."

"Yeah, but I didn't know how you meant it."

Farkle had been mulling over the next action for the last thirty-seven seconds and decided that it was worth the risk. Carefully he placed his arm around the blonde bombshell's shoulders and prayed to Yahweh that she wouldn't blow up in his face. Surprisingly the glamazon snuggled into the embrace and sighed.

"I'm sorry." she finally said.

"Sorry for what? You haven't done anything wrong."

She smiled, "I'm such a mess. I'm so much of a mess that I can't believe you when you say all these nice things about me." She wiped a tear from her eye and nestled her head into the crook of his neck, "I'm horrible for you, y'know."

"Now that's a bad joke." Farkle replied."Maya, you're amazing when you don't let yourself get in the way. You're capable of incredible feats. You can sing and play the guitar at the same time. I can't do that, I can barely play and Lord knows I can't sing."

Maya looked up at him, "You play guitar?"

"For about a year now." he replied, "I started learning after Riley gave you your grandmother's guitar back. I wanted to impress you, but for someone so intelligent I have really stupid fingers."

"Wow, Farkle. What else don't I know about you?"

The boy shrugged, "I never learned how to ride a bicycle."

Maya chuckled and nestled in closer. The two teens soon fell into a comfortable silence while the glow from the Christmas lights washed over them.

"I love you, Maya." Farkle finally said.

"I love you, too." she replied, "As much as I can right now."

.

Maya didn't know when she had fallen asleep, she didn't even know when her and Farkle had stopped talking, all she knew was at that moment, curled up next to the silly big-hearted boy, she didn't want to be anywhere else.

She pried her eyes open and groggily looked at her watch. It was two-twenty-seven in the morning. Riley had convinced her parents to let Maya spend the weekend with them and she knew how strictly Mr. Matthews enforced curfews. As it stood she was three hours and twenty-seven minutes past and she knew she would catch an ear-full for it. Slowly she removed Farkle's arm from her shoulder. She knew that if he woke up the boy would insist on walking her home. It had been such a nice evening for both of them, emotional, but nice, and Maya thought the best thing to do was not muddle it with a silent walk home capped with awkward good nights.

Instead she kissed the still sleeping boy on the cheek and made her way to the door. Stopping just shy of the room's threshold, Maya turned back and committed Farkle's sleeping face to memory. Quietly she undid the leather strap holding Mr. Palmyrene's metal plate to her wrist and placed it on the work station. She didn't know why she did it, she just knew that she had to.

Making her way into the hall, Maya was surprised to see some of the lights still on and music coming from the living room. She deftly stepped over a few unrecognizable teens who had fallen asleep in the kitchen and pilfered a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

 _"We were up against the wall on the west mezzanine-"_

Maya took a swig from her bottle before realizing that some of the voices singing we very familiar.

 _"We rattle this town, we rattle this scene. Oh, Anna Sun!"_

She peaked through the kitchen's entrance and saw something surprising; dancing around in a circle with their faces covered in paint were a few of her classmates. Sitting on the couch keeping rhythm on an empty guitar case was Myzell and Yogi while Darby and Jade danced around with tambourines. Standing in the middle of the group was Wyatt playing a bright orange acoustic guitar adorned with a giant letter "F" ( _obviously Farkle's property_ ) and the boy who Maya assumed was Ezra playing a cherry red Flying V hooked into a portable amplifier on his belt.

 _"What do you know, this house is falling apart! What can I say? This house if falling apart!"_

Ezra turned and spotted the sunny-haired girl and gave her a wink.

 _"We got no money, but we got heart! We're gonna rattle this ghost town, this house is falling apart!"_

Maya stood there watching the group with a smile. It was a strange feeling, watching her classmates shed the stress of the school week and just dance their problems away. She had never seen any of them like this before. With Farkle's sudden declaration not even four hours in her past she wondered how much of her world she had yet to notice.


	3. Useless Crushes

Epilogue: Useless Crushes

.

Monday had finally arrived, but for Riley and Maya it hadn't come soon enough. Mr. Matthews had practically burst a blood vein when he found out how late the girls had gotten home Friday night, if it wasn't for Mrs. Matthews' intervention the girls would've been grounded for a lot longer than just the weekend.

Of course being grounded meant that all their plans had been washed down the drain. Instead, hours of window shopping were replaced with hours painting their nails, playing with Auggie, and doing everything they wouldn't normally do to stave off their boredom. It didn't help that none of the boys were around to entertain them either, Lucas and Zay had opted to go camping that weekend while Farkle seemed to just be avoiding them all together.

.

"I wonder what Farkle and Ezra did over the weekend?" Riley said out loud as she dumped her books into her locker.

Maya smiled, "Well, Sarah mentioned something about her and Ezra going shopping before I left the party." She saw her friend frown at the mention of their classmate. "Oh, that doesn't make you jealous, does it, Riles?"

"Of course not," she spat back, "nor does it make me jealous that my best friends in the whole wide world disappeared and left me all by my lonesome during said party."

Maya had no comeback, there was nothing she could say that wouldn't tip Riley off to the events of that night. Instead she chose to glare at the back of her her friend's head until they entered their history class.

Lucas Friar turned in his chair and gave a short wave, "Hey, Riley, Maya. How was your weekend?"

"Crashed Farkle's party, got grounded, pretty standard." Maya replied. "What about you, Sundance? You and Butch have a fun time roastin' marshmellers an' communin' wit' nature?" she asked in her mock Southern accent.

"Why does she do that?" Zay Babineaux asked.

"No idea," Lucas replied, "probably some deep-seeded stereotype that was ingrained in her at an early age."

"Or she's just mean."

Lucas shrugged.

As the rest of the students poured in Mr. Matthews entered through the classroom's back door. "Alright, class, I have to go talk to Principal Yancy for a minute so sit tight." He turned and was half way down the hall before turning back. "No messing around while I'm gone. No dancing or pop gun fights and no drawing my head on a donkey body, _MAYA_."

.

Fifteen minutes had passed before Lucas made an observation. "Hey, where's Farkle?"

"Ezra said that they were going to the hardware store before school," Sarah replied, "maybe they ran late."

"You've been hanging out with him a lot." Wyatt said.

"You don't own me!" Sarah snapped.

Just as the awkward tension in the room reached it's maximum saturation Farkle entered silently and took his seat. He tugged at the collar of his jet black turtleneck, it had been so long since he had worn one that he had grown uncomfortable wearing them.

"Wow, Fark, you almost missed a whole class." Zay said, "And why are you dressed like Steve Jobs?"

Farkle shrugged and retrieved his books from his bag, "Mathematically I was bound to be late to a class eventually." he replied as deadpan as possible.

"Yeah, but you're Farkle," Lucas stated, "the only time you missed a class for any amount of time was when you got beaned in the face by a dodge ball. _TWICE_."

Farkle just chuckled.

It was weird, too weird. "You feeling alright, Fark? You don't seem...well, very _you_ right now." Lucas couldn't help but pry.

"Yeah, Farkle," Maya chimed in, "you seem really...peppy."

The young genius scratched his head, "I dunno, I guess I just had a really good weekend." he replied with a smile.

Just then Mr. Matthews returned and began writing the day's subject on the chalkboard. "Sorry about that, class. Oh, Mr. Minkus! I'm glad you could join us! You're never late, did you have to fight a dragon or something?" he asked dripping with sarcasm.

"I thought I did, but it was just Mrs. Thompson the lunch lady." Farkle replied in kind.

Maya couldn't understand where this tonal shift had come from. There was, dare she say it, _confidence_ in Farkle's voice. Not the kind that he normally had, full of pomp and inflated ego, but real rock-solid confidence. She turned to her friend hoping to receive some kind of telepathic answer, but all she found was a wide grin plastered across her face.

"What?" Maya said out loud.

Riley shook her head, "Don't worry about it," she replied, "I'm sure we'll all find out together."

Finding herself more confused than ever Maya turned back to the front of the class and began pretending not to listen to Mr. Matthew's lesson. Little did she know that the moment Farkle lifted his hand to scratch his head Riley saw exactly what had given him his new-found confidence. Just under his sleeve on his left arm was a thick metal plate, no wider than a palm and pock marked with age, tied around his wrist with a well-worn leather strap.

The End

* * *

 **Well, there it is. Any constructive criticism is welcome and if there's any spelling error please let me know. Also, like I said, I'm not used to the uploader here so all the spacing is off. If anyone wants to help me out with that please shoot me a PM. I want to continue this and I have an idea of where it should go, but after GMT part 3 I'm not really sure what to do.  
** **Thank-you to whoever took the time to read this, it really means a lot to me.**


	4. Prove My Love

**Author's Note: So I tried continuing this story way back when I first posted it and unfortunately it went off the rails. Farkle became too angry, Lucas became an emotional punching bag, and Riley was the moral center for all of them. Okay, that last part is pretty true to the character, but still. Anyway, this is about as far as I got before everything went south, I'm not sure if I'll post anything else for this story. Oh, FYI, Ezra's basically my sounding board for why the Faya ship is so important to me, he basically touches on why I think Farkle and Maya should be end-game. Anyway, thanks for reading and any constructive criticism is welcome.**

* * *

 _"_ _You can't tell anybody."_

 _"_ _I will unless you do."_

 _"_ _Why?!"_

 _"_ _Because we're growing up and I don't know how to handle these feelings we're feeling..."_

 _._

"What's wrong with you today?" Ezra asked as he swung his red polycarbonite Lightsaber blade towards his opponent's legs.

"What do you mean?" Farkle grunted as he deflected the hit and threw his own.

"I mean you're spacey in class, but you're overly focused and critical while sparring. You haven't been the same since Texas."  
"I did some growing up." Spinning to his left Farkle slammed his Saber into the training mat where Ezra stood. Despite his obvious lack of athleticism and his inability to even shoot just one basket in basketball, Farkle was surprisingly agile when it came to sword fighting.

Ezra dropped out of his stance and disconnected the hard plastic blade from his grubby, haphazardly repaired hilt. "Farkle, man, don't lie to me."

Farkle doused his yellow LED-laced sword. "Stuff happened. That's all I want to say about it." he said as he stowed his gear in his dark blue sword bag.

In the six months Ezra had known the lanky teen he discovered that Farkle played a lot of things close to the vest, if he didn't want to talk about it now there would be no point in trying to drag it out of him. Sighing he tossed his friend a shrug, "Alright, man. Whatever's going on I know you got it under control." He grumpily threw his gear into a matching sword bag and picked up his phone. "Oh, geez, I'm gonna be late!" he said. Hastily throwing on a clean T-shirt Ezra gathered his belongings and bee-lined it for the door. "Sarah wanted to grab some froyo tonight since she's got that family thing tomorrow."

Farkle slung his bag over his shoulder and smiled. "You two seem to be getting along."

"I guess. She's pretty cool." Ezra blushed. The stocky teen quickly bounded out of the gym leaving Farkle alone with his thoughts.

Almost a full month had passed since Farkle and his gaggle of friends had visited Lucas' home town, despite how it ended Farkle still considered it one of the best moments of his life. The end of the trip still lingered in the forefront of his mind though, Maya had finally worked though her fear and confessed her feelings for their resident cowboy and, despite having very little in common, the two decided to start dating. It killed Farkle to see them standing next to each other, it filled him with rage toward Riley for stepping aside and allowing this to happen. That wasn't right though, he knew that Riley always looked out for her friends even when it pained her to do it. Mostly he was mad at himself for not finding that one thing he could've said or done to convince Maya that he was the right choice. But magic doesn't exist, hope was for suckers, and as much as he begged for it love wouldn't find him. _God, I'm starting to sound like Maya when she's in one of her moods,_ Farkle thought. It was time for him to leave the gym and all his dark thoughts behind.

.

 _"_ _Farkle!"_

Farkle slammed his locker shut and braced himself, he had sadly spent a fair amount of his day, nay his entire week, sticking to shadows and dodging the object of his affection. He knew he wasn't ready to talk to Maya about the events of Texas, they hadn't even talked about the eye-opening conversation they had at Farkle's party. Maybe he was overreacting, it wouldn't have been the first time. Maybe it was time to stop hiding, if he truly loved her as much as he said he did then at the very least Farkle owed it to her to pretend like everything was okay. He held that thought in his brain as he turned...and immediately dropped it on the ground. "Oh, hey, Maya. Lucas."

"You alright, Fark?" Lucas asked, offering his widest grin to him, "You haven't been around lately."

"I've just been busy with the club and all my extracurriculars," he lied, "I'll try to make more time to hang out."

"That's good, but that's not what I meant. You don't even talk to us in the hallway, you just blow past us and head straight into class."

Farkle quickly put on his poker face, "I've got a lot on my plate, Friar, it's nothing earth-shattering."

"Since when did you start calling me Friar?"

"Lucas," Maya interjected, "can I talk to Farkle for a minute?"

Now that was concerning. "Sure." he replied. Lucas knew better than to pry into his friend's business.

Maya watched Lucas disappear down an adjacent hall before whipping back around. "What is going on with you?" she spat.

"Don't worry about me, Maya. I'm taking some time off, that's all." Just this once he prayed that she would just let it go. He couldn't deal with her, not right now. There was too much going on in his head and his heart for him to put his feelings into words.

"I don't know what that means. Farkle, you haven't been acting right since—oh." There it was, the sudden realization of of cause and effect. She would be lying if she said she didn't keep Farkle's _"statement of intent"_ in the back of her mind at all times, but that in that moment under the Texas stars, as she looked into Lucas' eyes...

"I gotta go," Farkle said as he hoisted his book bag over his shoulder, "I promised Riley I'd bring her all the homework assignments she missed."

Before the would-be dictator made his way past, Maya grabbed his wrist and clamped down. "Wait. Farkle, this is about my feelings for Lucas." There was something wrong, something in the air that made Maya cringe in her own skin.

"Maya, we've talked about this. You know how I feel and I know how you feel and, quite honestly, I'm tired of talking. I'll leave your bracelet in my locker tomorrow if you want it back. I know you know the combination."

That was it, the thing that made Maya's heart drop. In the months after the party she noticed Farkle wearing the bracelet she had given him. For some reason seeing it on him made her day just a little brighter, but now, knowing that he wasn't wearing it, her day couldn't get any darker.

.

Riley Matthews lay awake staring through bloodshot eyes at the white paint swirls that adorned her ceiling. She covered her mouth with a wad of paper towels and hocked a load of mucus out of her lungs, this had been her hourly ritual for the last two days with no sign of it getting any better. She turned as best she could under the four sheets and three comforters her parents had wrapped her in and reached for her phone that lay face down on her nightstand.

 _"_ _Lady~!"_

Riley whipped her vision towards her window and let out a sigh. "Farkle." She smiled weakly as her nerdy yet adorable friend made his way into her room and retrieved the homework packet from his backpack. Riley pushed herself into a sitting position and coughed gently before taking the manila folder. "Thanks, I don't know what I'd do if my grades slipped."

"No problem." he replied, "I'll be stopping by a little late tomorrow, the club is having our first ranking match. Yogi might be moving up which is impressive."

Riley motioned for her friend to take a seat on her bed. There was a beat where it seemed like he wouldn't take the invitation, but instead he took his place next to her. "Farkle, are you okay?" she asked.

He scrunched his nose, "Why does everyone keep asking me that today?" he deflected. It was true though, for as good as he was at everything academic Farkle was horrible at lying when asked about his feelings directly, especially when the people doing the asking were his best friends. "I'm fine, I promise."

"Why are you lying to me?" Riley asked point-blank.

"I'm not-!" Farkle took a moment and collected himself. As upset as everyone's recent meddling had gotten him Farkle was still clear-minded enough to know that Riley didn't deserve to be yelled at, especially in her condition. "Okay, maybe I am. It just...makes things easier, I guess."

"Is this about Maya?" Riley took her friend's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"I don't-"

"Ezra," she said cutting him off, "he said something at your party a few months ago. He always has this look on his face when they pass by. It got me thinking."

"And what exactly did you think of, Ms. Matthews?"

"That you like Maya and it's killing you that Maya likes Lucas."

Farkle's mind raced. There were a billion things the young genius could reply with; _Maya can do what she wants (too passive), You're one to talk since you're still in love with Lucas (too venomous), It is killing me and you can't fix it (too cold)._ Instead, Farkle took a deep breath and placed his ailing friend's hand back in her lap. "I'll see you later, Riley."

.

It had gotten late as Farkle trudged though the streets of New York, much later than he had anticipated. The young prodigy had expected mull over his conversation with Riley for no more than twenty minutes before catching a cab back to his family's home just on the other side of the burrow, but now a full hour and forty-three minutes later Farkle realized that he was stewing in his own heart break. He regretted not talking to Riley when he had the chance, as bubbly and feather-brained she could be at time Farkle knew that just talking to her often led to some form of positive outcome.

Sighing, Farkle reached for his phone. One call to his parents would fix his immediate problem, it wouldn't be the first time he slept in the downtown apartment by himself. Suddenly his phone blared to life. "Hello?" he answered.

 _"_ _Farkle!"_

Oh great. Farkle remembered a time when he thought that nothing could turn a horrible situation around like the sound of a beautiful Valkyrie's voice. It had been that way since he was five years old, ever since a little blonde angel taped his knee back together after he blew it open jumping from a playground swing set. Her ethereal voice never failed to cheer him up, that is until right now. "Hey, Maya."

 _"_ _Your crazy friend Ezra just got into a fist fight with Lucas!"_

Farkle would've been lying if he said he had seen it coming. Besides a few off-hand remarks about their current dating situation Ezra had always been on good terms with both Lucas and Maya. Silently he kicked himself for not picking up on any signs. "Where are they? What happened?"

 _"_ _Lucas and I are at the café, your friend took off and left Sarah here. I don't know what happened, but Ezra seemed on edge as soon as we walked in. I didn't think he'd go nuts like this. Hold on."_

 _"_ _Farkle?"_

"Sarah," Farkle sighed with grief, "are you alright? Where's Ezra?"

 _"_ _Yeah, I just...Ezra really...when you find Ezra tell him I'm not mad, I'm just...a little scared."_

"I will." he promised. "Take care of Maya for me?"

 _"_ _Okay."_

 _._

Stare, paper towel, cough, get grossed out at what just came out of your lungs, repeat. Despite her best efforts Riley was bored out of her adorable little skull. She reached for her phone for the millionth time and stared at her lock screen. Staring back at her was the face of her favorite cowboy, just as charming and bright-eyed as the day she met him. She sighed and coughed again, she'd have to change that picture sooner than she thought. She contemplated giving Lucas a call, but that would just make her feel worse. She thought about calling Charlie, but that would just result in the same outcome. She even thought of calling Zay, but not even she was that desperate. Suddenly her phone vibrated out of her weak grip and landed smack-dab in the center of her face. "Hello?" she answered as she rubbed her already tender nose.

 _"_ _Hey, Riley."_

The brunette smiled, her prayers had been answered. "Oh, Ezra. Sorry, I didn't have your number saved. Are you alright? You sound out of breath."

 _"_ _Oh, yeah, I just ran like, seven city blocks."_

"What? Why would you do something like that?" she asked and she pushed herself up against her headboard.

 _"_ _I ,um, I did something kinda really stupid. I assume you don't know what's going on since you're the only one not blowing up my phone."_

"Who's blowing up your phone? What's going on?"

 _"_ _Oh, you know; Farkle, Maya, Sarah. Sarah's even got Darby and Myzell calling me and Farkle seems to have Yogi spamming my SplashFace page."_

A ball of ice formed in Riley's stomach, something was seriously wrong if half of her father's history class was looking for him. "Ezra, what did you do?"

 _"_ _I, um...I took Sarah to get some froyo after school, but the place was closed because one of their machines sprang a leak so we ended up at your mom's café and...Maya was there...with Lucas."_

And suddenly the ball dropped. Riley knew how much Maya and Lucas' relationship bothered him, Ezra had passively voiced his opinion to her a number of times about their awkward love triangle. Riley tried to slow the beating in her chest, but deep down she knew what Ezra had done. "Ezra, you didn't..." she asked, hoping against all hope.

 _"_ _If it makes you feel better your cowboy did a number on me, too. Popped me right in the eye, I can't really see anything."_

"Where are you?" she asked as she forced her weary frame out of bed.

 _"_ _Thinking. Sitting on a stone wall next to some stairs. There's a clothing store across the street with an ugly lime-green shawl in the window."_

"Are you across from Demolition?"

 _"_ _Huh, so that's what that sign says."_

Riley hastily threw her giant green winter coat over her shoulders and crawled out her bedroom window. "Ezra, promise me you won't move, okay? Promise me."

 _"_ _...I promise."_

 _._

What a day it had been. Everything had been going so well for Ezra Mizugaki. He had gotten an A on his literary quiz, he finally got his mother's sapphire blue Rickenbacker guitar sent to him by his brother in Seattle, and to top it all off he had a date with the most amazing girl to every grace the halls of John Quincy Addams High. It was the best day he had ever had since moving to the big apple. The best day before he mucked it all up. He could never keep his anger in check, it was a physical impossibility. He was always made fun of because of his weight for as long as he could remember and eventually it just became easier to respond with violence than with words. The problem with violence was the more times you respond with it, the easier it was to fall back on. "Oh, Ezra," he said to himself, "look at what you did this time."

 _"_ _Hey."_

Ezra turned. Standing next to him was the second most amazing girl to ever grace John Quincy Addams. "Hi." he said as he made room for Riley to sit. "Oh, God, you look terrible."

She snuffled before giving him a smile. "Gee, thanks."

"No, I mean I know you're sick, but I didn't think...you should go home."

"I will when you do." she replied.

Ezra sighed, "I don't have to be home until nine so you're gonna have to wait a while."

Riley reached into the pocket of her gigantic coat and produced a lumpy plastic bag. "Here, I got you some ice."

"Thanks." Ezra plucked the bag from her shivering hand and placed it over his plum-colored eye.

The two teens sat there for a moment letting their silence envelop them like a silk blanket. Every so often Ezra would steal glances at his angelic companion, as much as he hated to admit it, Riley Matthews was starting to creep her way into his chest.

"Why'd you beat up Lucas?"

Ezra was taken aback by her point-blank question. In all honesty he had hoped that Riley would have just sat there until it was time to leave and he would never have to explain himself to her, but when it came to dealing with the infamous Riley Matthews he knew her favorite thing to do was to talk. "Does it really matter?" he asked, hoping she would just drop it.

"Yes. You beat up one of my best friends and I'd like to know why."

It hurt. It was the biggest wound Ezra carried and it had the biggest bandage in the world holding it closed and it hurt. "Because guys like him get everything and we get nothing. We get pushed aside for things that look better, smell better, have more money. Society deems us undesirable." It hurt. It was the biggest wound and it hurt.

"Farkle likes Maya." Riley said, her words placing a firm grip on the bandage.

"Yep."

"And you hate that Maya and Lucas are together because it just proves that you and Farkle are undesirable."

"Pretty much."

"But why beat him up?"

This was it, the moment of truth. "Because they're horrible together!" Ezra bellowed. The bandage had been torn from it's place and a river of pent up rage spewed forth. "They couldn't even make eye contact when we saw them! It was so stupid, they just sat there not saying anything and...and the more I watched them the angrier I got." Ezra deflated, "Maya's wonderful and Farkle adores her and it...it's just like me and Rylyn."

"Your ex?" Riley asked. She closed the gap between them and gently placed her hand on Ezra's.

"Not exactly." he replied as he turned his hand over and entwined his fingers with hers. "I was madly in love with her and we used to hang out a lot. We were just friends I guess. We spent every afternoon together, but as soon as she found out that _Dwight Malcom_ liked her she dropped me. Just like that-" he snapped his fingers, "-and suddenly I'm no better than the dead leaves that wind up in gutters. Dwight was better looking than me, more in shape. He was gearing up to play high school football. He was everything I'm not and Rylyn just wanted someone pretty to wrap her arm around. I couldn't understand why she didn't want someone who picked her up when she was down, who helped her study up for the big tests, I couldn't figure out why I wasn't good enough." Ezra started to tear up, "I beat the snot out of Dwight, I got suspended for it, too. They said I had 'Intermittent Explosive Disorder' which was a crock according to my mom. She pulled me out of school and began teaching me herself. Then my mom got sick and I ended up skipping a year to take care of her. Then she died."

There was a sudden lack of words on Riley's tongue. It was impossible for her to empathize with the raven-haired boy, she had never lost a parent or anyone else close to her for that matter. "I'm sorry." was all she could offer. She rested her feverish head on his shoulder.

"It's fine," Ezra replied, "I'm sure she'll be waiting for me when I get to the other side. I wish she was here right now though, I could really use some help." He rested his head against Riley's, "I moved out here with my aunt right after the funeral. Farkle, he's just like I was a year ago, just one more person passed by. You guys don't see it because he puts up a front, but he gets torn open every time he talks to either of them. I didn't want him to end up like me, so angry at everything, so I thought that if I removed Lucas from the equation then..." He shook his head, "I didn't think it though."

"You know, you're not as undesirable as you think. Sarah really likes you."

Ezra laughed, "Yeah right, not after tonight. I kicked her classmate square in the liver right in front of her."

"She'll forgive you." Riley replied with confidence. "So will Farkle."

"How do you know that?"

She motioned to something behind them, "Because they've been standing by that tree this whole time."

Ezra turned a caught a glimpse of brunette locks cascading over a soft pink sweater hiding behind a tall oak. "Of course they have." he said with a smile.

"I told them to meet me here, but I didn't say why. The last thing you need is for Lucas and Maya to follow them. I told them I'd wave them over when you were ready."

"Maybe in a minute," he sighed, "I don't want Sarah seeing me like this."

"Oh, I don't know, you look kinda rugged."

"Rugged?" Ezra scrunched his nose, "I can't see out of one eye, I tore my shirt, I'm pretty sure I still have blood on my lip, and my hair is atrocious."

Riley retrieved a tissue from her coat and gently removed said blood before running her fingers through his ruined mane, "I think it's a good look, like one of those action movie heroes."

"Please don't say that."

"What? Why not?" she asked quizzically.

He reached for Riley's hands and placed them on her knees, "Because you're adorable and weird and I'll have a hard enough time making all this up to Sarah. You're too easy to fall for, Riley Matthews."

Riley blushed. Lucas meant the world to her, everyone knew that. He was funny and handsome and brave and he always told the greatest stories. Charlie was charming and, even though it pained her to admit it, he was actually pretty adorable and his smile had managed to weaken Riley's knees from time to time. Ezra however just wasn't her type physically, but what he lacked in looks and physique he more than made up for in everything else. He was funny and brave and charming and, despite having crooked teeth, his smile always managed to make her blush. Indeed, if it was so easy to fall for Riley Matthews the same could be said for Ezra Mizugaki.

"It's been a minute." she finally said, forcing herself to break eye contact.

"I know." Ezra replied, "Just...gimmie one more."

* * *

 **A/N 2: I don't know why the Fanfiction editor is giving me such a hard time spacing my paragraphs. Anyone else having that problem?**


	5. Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare

**Author's note: Yes, it's been a while since I've written, but there have been a lot of things going on in the world. Regardless, here's chapter five (finally). This chapter took me a few months to get off the ground, it's a salvaged version of two separate chapters I had written before. It ended up as an Ezra-heavy chapter which I'm sort of disappointed in since the last chapter had a lot of Ezra in it. The next chapter will focus more on Maya and Farkle (if I can help it). Surprisingly I have half of chapter seven written even though I have nothing for chapter six. Anyway, I hope you like where this story is headed, as always constructive criticism is welcome.**

* * *

 _"Forgiveness is one of our finest qualities as human beings."_

It hadn't been a very good Wednesday for Maya Hart. Oh, sure, the sun was shining and she had gotten a decent breakfast at the Matthews', she had even gotten another A on her art project, but there was just something that rubbed her the wrong way, something that made her seek out the solitary environment of the roof of John Quincy Addams. The lock on the door leading to the roof was old, probably the oldest lock in the entire school. Maya pulled two hairpins from her golden quiff and popped open the rusted lock in mere seconds. The sun blinded her momentarily as she passed from the darkened staircase to the open air, but the view was worth a moment of discomfort. Maya hopped up onto one of the elevated air conditioning fans and surveyed her new surroundings. All around her stood tall trees with bright, brilliant green leaves and even taller metal and glass super-structures. Far below her perch sat a gaggle of students who had opted to take their lunch break out in the sun, laughing and chatting between bites of food. It made Maya think of brighter days.

 _"Maya?"_

The blonde turned and gave her visitor a smile. "Ezra. What are you doing up here?"  
"I come up here and have lunch sometimes." he replied while placing his backpack on the ground. "What are you doing up here?"

Maya turned back to the breathtaking view before her, "Not much. Thinking about jumping."

"No you're not."

Maya chuckled to herself, "You're right." she said softly as she stepped down from her perch and joined Ezra who had taken a seat against one of the protruding air vents. She hadn't seen him since the fight, not really. Oh sure, they still shared English and science, but she had refused to look at him. She cringed inwardly at the still blackened eye Ezra had hiding behind his glasses. Even though she thought he deserved it, she still kind of felt sorry for him.

"So what's the damage, Maya?" Ezra asked, "Still want to rip my guts out after what I did to Lucas?" It had been almost a week since he and the southern gentleman had traded blows in Topanga's café. Both boys still had their fair share of bruises and both were equally punished by their parental figures, however since the fight took place off of school grounds the boys still had to attend classes.

"Yes. No." Maya tucked a stray lock of straw colored hair behind her ear, "Riley told me what you said, about you and your old girlfriend. She didn't want to, but I bribed her with a batch of mint chocolate brownies."

"Of course." Ezra replied, completely unphased. He knew that as best friends Riley would've eventually told Maya his story sooner or later. He unzipped his bag and produced two ice-cold turkey sandwiches, two apples, and a thermos of water. He smiled at Maya before tossing one of the sandwiches into her lap.

"I understand why you were so mad," she said as she unwrapped her free meal, "but it doesn't give you an excuse to beat on Lucas."

Ezra ripped into his apple and sighed. "I know. Of course I know, but seeing you together..." He swallowed hard, "Farkle adores you, he threw away Smakle just for the chance of being with you. I've been thrown away so many times...I couldn't let Farkle become as jaded as I am." Ezra stopped himself, he had begun to blab. Instead he let his words hang in the air as he took a bite out of his sandwich. It still hurt to talk about it, but ever since his late night conversation with Riley he found it much easier to open up about his past. At the very least Riley had helped him take the edge off the thornier memories of his life.

"How do you know how he'll end up?"  
Ezra passed his blonde lunch-buddy a thermos lid full of cool, double-filtered water. "Look into his eyes the next time you see him and tell me you can't see that darkness creeping behind them."

Maya couldn't deny it, she had noticed the gray tinge in her brainy friend's eyes since their argument in the hallway. She had hoped that it was just her imagination, some self loathing she imprinted on the young man as penance for breaking his heart. Still, it was now official, there was no getting around it, Farkle was broken and it was her fault. "Thanks for the sandwich." she finally said, shaking the dark thoughts off like so much dust.

"Of course." Ezra shoved the last bit of turkey down his gullet and looked at his watch, "Eh, I gotta go, Mr. Matthews wanted to see me before next period." He hastily gathered up his things and packed them back in his bag before jumping to his feet. He turned and gave Maya a warm smile, "I'll see you around, Maya."

"Bye..." And once again Maya let the solitude of the roof surround her.

.

Cory Matthews put the finishing touches on his chalkboard and took a step back to admire his work. Today he would be teaching his class about the Mozambican Civil War. Though arguably one of the lesser-known proxies of the Cold War, it had actually gone on for more than fifteen years and it's after-effects were still felt today. It hadn't been on the list of subjects to cover, but it was late in the school year and Cory wanted to do something a little different. He had just picked up his third cup of coffee for the day when his classroom door slowly creaked open.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

Putting on one of his trademark smiles Cory motioned the student towards Riley's chair, "Yes, Ezra. Have a seat. I'm just gonna get down to it, alright?" He sat himself on the corner of his desk and took another swig from his cup before continuing. "Now my wife and I talked to your aunt, which, by the way, is something I never want to do again because she's CRAZY-" he laughed awkwardly, "- and we've decided that you're gonna work at the café on the weekends to pay off the chairs that you broke."

Ezra immediately nodded in agreement, "Sounds good, sounds better than what I deserve."

Cory looked at the bespectacled young man with concern, "What do you think you deserve, Mr. Mizugaki?" he asked.

He shrugged, "I don't know. Something involving a lot of pain I guess."

"Why do you say that?"

Ezra drew circles with his finger on Riley's desk. There was a lot more going on behind his head than anyone knew and he still wasn't exactly comfortable spilling his guts out to people let alone a teacher and even more so when that teacher is your friend's father. "I don't know," he finally replied, "my family's gone through a lot of it so I figure why stop now?"

.

Three more days, just three more days until Riley could go back to school. Just seventy-two hours, she could handle that, right? Wrong. She had gotten over her cold days ago, but her parents thought it was best for her to stay home a few more just in case of a relapse. By Thursday evening Riley was practically climbing the lavender walls of her bedroom and nothing she owned could satiate her colossal boredom. She had just tossed her tenth purple cat picture (the best out of all of them in her opinion) on the floor when her phone blared to life. She grabbed it from her nightstand and gave an indifferent grunt.

 _"Hey, Riley."_

Riley's heart jumped into her throat, never again would she answer her phone without looking. "Charlie, hi." she said with enough fake enthusiasm to knock out an elephant.

 _"I was wondering, I know you're still under the weather and all, but would you like to go to Shakespeare in the park with me? My parents are putting it on and it would be really nice if you came."_

Though she cringed a bit, Shakespeare in the park actually sounded kind of fun. It didn't help the fact that she felt guilty for basically snubbing him on their last date. She probably should make it up to him. Besides, one more date couldn't hurt, right? "Um, maybe? What day-oh." She didn't notice her bay window open until it was too late. Seated halfway in her room clad in jeans and blue flannel was none other than Lucas Friar. Riley covered her phone and hushed her tone, "Charlie, can I call you back?" Without waiting for an answer she jabbed the bright red hang up button.

"Hey." Lucas said as he hoisted the rest of himself through the window. He gave Riley a sheepish wave before taking a seat at the foot of her bed.

Riley returned his wave and smiled, "Lucas, what's going-woah, what happened to your head?"

Lucas put his hand up to the horizontal bruise that ran over his left brow and rubbed it lightly. "Farkle happened." he replied, "I stopped by his club today to see what's been eating up all his free time and I ended up going a few rounds with him. You know he's actually really good at fencing? I'm actually kind of jealous."

"Yeah, Ezra said-" she saw Lucas wince slightly at that name, "-Farkle might be better than he is."

"Ezra...Riley, what does he have against me?"

She averted her gaze and began fiddling with the corner of her blanket. Suddenly she rather be back on the phone with Charlie than dealing with this. "I don't know if-"

"Riley," Lucas moved closer and clasped her hand in his, "he practically jumped me in your mom's café. Farkle seems to know something, but he won't tell me. Maya's being tight-lipped, too. I just..." he sighed, "I want to know why he hates me."

"He doesn't hate you, not really." She cupped his hand with her free one and gently rubbed circles on the back of his with her thumb, "Lucas, Ezra's been through a lot and he doesn't know how to deal with it. I know that's not an excuse and I'm not asking you to forgive him, but he didn't attack you because he hates you." She chuckled a bit, "That sounds really stupid."

"Maya said he hates my type."

"Ezra's going through something right now." Riley replied, "You being with Maya is reminding him of someone that hurt him a long time ago and he hasn't dealt with it yet."

"So what do I do, Riley?" Lucas pleaded, "Tell me how to fix all this."

Riley couldn't stand to look at him for much longer, there was a desperation in Lucas' eyes that she had never seen before and it tore her apart. She choked back her sadness and steadied herself, "I don't think you can. I guess...just steer clear of him, understand that he's hurting, and maybe if he comes around just know that he can be as loyal as you are. Heck, he may be as strong as you, too."

"Oh, I'm sure he is," Lucas laughed, "I'm still rocking some outrageous bruises." He lifted his shirt to reveal a large bruise just under his right arm. Though it was clearly well on it's way to healing it was still almost a foot long and a sickly shade of green/yellow.

"Oh God, that looks-" Riley reached out to touch it and immediately pulled her hand back as if she had just stuck it in an open flame. Her face quickly turned a unique shade of crimson and she couldn't help but giggle awkwardly.

Lucas' face wasn't safe from flushing with color either. In the two years they had known each other neither of them had ever gotten that close to the other. Oh sure, there was the lap sitting on the subway and their first shared kiss, but this was different somehow. "Um...I better get going." he said nervously. He crossed the distance to Riley's window in one stride and practically threw himself out of it. He turned back and gave her his usual knee-weakening smile. "Thanks, Riley."

Riley gave him a wave, but he was already halfway down the fire escape. She felt strange, kind of warm and floaty. Maybe she was relapsing like her parents feared, maybe she just needed some air, maybe it had something to do with the spark she felt in her fingertips when she lightly brushed against Lucas' skin. Regardless of the reason Riley chose to just sit there in the middle of her bed and stare at the wall, letting the warm, floaty feeling stew inside her until her eyes became too heavy to keep open and finally drifted off to sleep.

.

Wake up late, miss the train, take a spill in the lunch hall, can't focus in science, can't focus in history, and now a full twenty minutes late for club setup. It was a laundry list of things that had gone wrong for Farkle that day and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. Maybe it was a vitamin deficiency, maybe he had caught what Riley had, either way it had been Farkle's worst day academically all year. Exhausted, he tossed his history book into his locker and thanked the powers that be that Mr. Matthews didn't assign homework that day. "Hey, Maya." he said while keeping his eyes closed.

Maya plopped down against the lockers next to him, the scent of her shampoo betraying her presence. She thought she should start with a hello, maybe ask how his day was going. She had noticed his spacey behavior in class and was actually pretty worried about him. Yes, she should ask him, but instead all that came out was "I heard you walloped Lucas yesterday."

"He wanted to see what we do at the club. It was his idea." Farkle grabbed his sword bag and closed his locker.

"You didn't take it easy on him, did you."

He forced himself to look her in the eye, "If this was a year ago would you have?"

They both knew the answer to that. A year ago Maya would've used every opportunity to knock old huckleberry down a peg, if she could've done it with fencing she would've smashed him in a heartbeat. She couldn't help but smile, "I gotta admit, I didn't think you had it in you."

Farkle checked his bag, content that he had everything for his club he decided to turn to a more serious line of conversation. He figured it was about time. "You still haven't taken your bracelet back." he said, the metal and leather band hanging from his fingertips.

Maya curled his fingers back over the trinket, "I gave it to you for a reason, Farkle. Look, I don't know how I really feel about Lucas, but I don't really know how I feel about you either."

"I still love you, that hasn't changed."

"I know you do, but I need to figure out what's going on with me. I need you to understand, I love you, too, I just don't know in what way yet. I need time to figure that out."

 _"Farkle,club meeting in ten!"_

Farkle turned and waved at Ezra who had bellowed at him from the stairs. Turning back to Maya a few dozen thoughts passed through his head, anger, sadness, absolute hatred for a certain Huckleberry McBoingboing. Outright self-loathing for himself. Finally, Farkle's giant brain came to the conclusion that there was only one thing he could possibly say. "Okay."

"Okay?" Maya laughed awkwardly.

Farkle nodded, "If I loved you as much as I said I should be willing to let you go and figure things out for yourself. I'm sorry I've been acting like such a jerk."

Maya took his hand and gave it a squeeze, "It's fine. I'll see you later, okay?" She hesitated for a moment, not knowing if the next move was the right one. Standing on her tippy toes Maya placed a gentle kiss on her genius friend's forehead before running off down the hall.

After a beat Farkle gathered his belongings and bound up the stars. As he reached the gym he came to a screeching halt to avoid slamming into the janitor's closet door. Peaking around the door was a very familiar brunette. "Sarah?" Farkle said, rather dumbstruck, "You okay? What are you doing in there?"

Sarah jumped back and clutched her chest, "Farkle! Geez, you scared me! I was just..." she straightened her glasses and took a steadying breath, "I didn't want Ezra to see me."

Farkle shook his head, "What, why? I thought you two had worked everything out."

"We did." she replied sheepishly, "Mostly. I don't know what to say to him anymore, he kind of scares me."

"Because of what he did to Lucas?"

"He was just—he changed, in a split second he just..." Sarah was visibly upset now, her eyes were downcast and her fingers nervously messed with the tips of her hair.

Farkle put his hands on her shoulders, trying his best to comfort his classmate. "I know, but, Sarah, that's not him. Ezra isn't like that." He wasn't, Farkle knew that. Ezra was the best guy friend he ever had, but there was no way for him to convey that to Sarah, not in words anyway.

"I don't know that," Sarah finally said, "not for sure." Not giving Farkle a chance to respond, she turned and hastily made her way to the school's main entrance.

Farkle couldn't take it anymore, he slammed his foot against the closet door before quickly composing himself. Tomorrow was Saturday, he would have a whole two days to forget about everything this rotten day had thrown at him. He would make a giant bucket of popcorn and spend most of the weekend watching cheesy science fiction movies and playing _Zombies Eat Your Brains 4_. Yes, the weekend would be the pallet-cleanser he so desperately needed. Or so he thought. Just as his weary hand reached for the gymnasium door his phone blared to life. Groaning he shoved his hand into his pocket and fumbled for his device. He whimpered at the name staring back at him.

.

Topanga Matthews had just placed the last clean cup on one of the café's many cup racks when a wonderous new smell permeated the air. Hints of blueberry and lemon swirled around her as Ezra appeared from the kitchen holding a sheet pan full of steaming hot scones. As he moved them to a serving tray Topanga snatched one and took a large bite. What could only be called an explosion of flavor washed over her taste buds. "Wow, Ezra, these scones came out really well!"  
Ezra blushed, it wasn't every day that a pretty woman paid him a compliment. "Thanks, Mrs. Matthews. It's one of the few skills my mother left me with."

Topanga gave his shoulder a squeeze, "I'm sure she'd be proud to know you're putting your skills to work. Now I'm gonna go get the next batch of iced tea ready, why don't you go see how the customers outside are doing." She gave him a wink before disappearing into the kitchen.

Ezra grabbed a wet rag and headed outside. He began wiping down tables, taking only a second to smile at a pair of Abigail Adams seniors. Moving between tasks Ezra deftly refilled drinks and helped an elderly couple pick out the perfect piece of lemon meringue pie. Silently he thanked the Lord for everything he learned while working at his brother's sub shop last summer. Returning to the outside seating Ezra spotted an adorable brunette sitting by herself. It wasn't until he was right next to her that his heart dropped. "Smakle?"

"Hello, Ezra." she said, placing her orange and black glasses into their protective case.

Shaking his head Ezra cracked a smile, "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"If you must know I'm meeting someone very important."

"Important, huh?" He eyed her suspiciously. "Anyway, can I get you anything?"

"No thank-you." she replied as she folded her hands in front of her.

"Sure?" he asked again, "We got fresh iced tea, raspberry lemonade, I made scones-"

"SCONES!" Smackle yelled, practically jumping out of her seat, " _Ahem_ , I would like a scone, please."

"Yes, ma'am." He gave her a quick salute and jogged inside.

Topanga had just waved off the elderly couple when she saw Ezra come in. "Oh, Ezra, can you take out the trash? After than you can knock off early, there isn't much left to do and Katy should be in any minute now."

Giving a nod Ezra went about plating a pair of scones. He had never met Maya's mother, though he had heard about her from Sarah once. Something about a failed actress moonlighting as a waitress. If she was half as gutsy and beautiful as Maya was Ezra knew he would like her. As he placed the confections in front of Smackle Farkle came bounding down the stairs behind them. "Hey, Fark. What are you doing here?"

Farkle didn't speak, a guilty look was his only response.

"No." Ezra said in disbelief. He turned a doubtful eye at Smackle, "He's the important person?"

"How very astute." Smackle replied, ending her sentence with a slight scoff. "Now then, Farkle, let us get down to brass tacks as they say."

"Who say? Someone from the forties?" Ezra didn't like where this was going, why would Smackle want to see Farkle after everything he said to her?

"As everyone is aware," Smackle began, interlacing her fingers on the table, "Maya Hart has spurned your advances in favor of pursuing an objectively bland and unbearably awkward relationship with the boyishly handsome, dare I say dreamy, Lucas Friar. Now I submit to you that, while understandably heartbreaking as the situation is, their relationship presents to you an opportunity to rekindle your relationship with one raven-haired female that matches your I.Q. In other words; ditch the dunce and let's go steady, baby."

"Oh come on." Ezra interjected, throwing his hands into the air.

"I've prepared a a sixteen page proposal detailing both the pros and cons of a relationship between us. I'm sure you'll find that the cons are greatly outnumbered."

Farkle just stood there, a vacant gape plastered across his face. A half-hearted, completely indifferent "Huh." was the only thing to escape his lips.

Ezra jumped between the two teens, "Excuse me, I hate to interrupt, but...who am I kidding." With lightning speed Ezra grabbed Farkle by the elbow and practically threw him though the café's entrance. "Tell me you have a way to let her down gently." he said as he paced in front of his friend.

Farkle threw a shrug before planting his hands in his jeans pockets, "To be honest I'm actually considering what she said."

Ezra's jaw dropped like a door on a broken hinge, "Are you mental?! After everything you did and said you're just gonna cut out? What about all that jazz about Maya meaning the world to you?"

"She did," Farkle replied, his right hand now out of his pocket and gesticulating wildly, "she does. Maya was worth my entire world, I just wasn't worth hers." His arm finally slumped to his side. Farkle felt guilty, he felt guilty for even looking at another girl, but he felt rage and loneliness so much more.

"What are you talking about?!" Ezra bellowed, "She doesn't even know-they're horrible together!" Over Farkle's shoulder Ezra could see Mrs. Matthews watching them with great concern. Ezra deflated with a sigh, "Farkle, if you do this I can't support you."

It was Farkle's turn to lose his cool, "Did you ever think for once that my relationship with Maya means more to you than it does to me?"

"No!" Ezra yelled, his anger and confusion now back in full swing and working over time, "Farkle, I've heard you go on for hours about how amazing and beautiful and all that junk she is! She's the one you want, you can't just dip out on this!"

"She dipped out first, Ezra." Farkle replied, an accusing finger jabbed in his friend's direction, "She needed time to figure out how she feels, maybe I need to do the same thing. And...and I'm tired of being alone."

"Are you kidding?" Ezra covered his face with his hands and took a deep breath. None of this was going well, Ezra could see that much. He knew this knee-jerk reaction from his friend would just land him in more hot water, it was guaranteed. Dropping his hands to continue the conversation, Ezra was greeted by and empty space in front of him. Spinning in his place he found that his friend had already moved passed the café's threshold. "Farkle. Farkle! Son of a-!"

Farkle placed his hands on Smackle's table and forced himself to tune out the screaming voice in his gut. "Alright, Smakle," he started, "I present a counter offer; you and I will date, but on a trial basis only. In three months I'll reevaluate the situation and depending on the outcome we will then 'go steady' as you put it." There it was out in the open, the was no going back.

A giant smile clawed it's way across Smackle's face, "While that's not the conclusion I had hoped for, it is acceptable."

"You weapons-grade plum, I can't believe you're doing this. Farkle, this will not end well, you'll lose everything you've worked for. You will kill Maya, do you understand that? Man, I am _begging_ you, do not do this." Ezra was practically on his knees, his eyes welled up to the brim with tears.

Farkle stood his ground, "It's my choice, Ezra, you need to let me make it."

Ezra was now mad. No, he was furious. How many hours did he waste trying to help him out? How many pep talks did he give? Ezra wanted to smash something, he wanted to throw a chair through the café's window, but most of all Ezra wanted to pop Farkle right in the mouth. Oh, how he hated him. With fists clenched tight Ezra took a deep breath before clearing his eyes, "No, what I _**NEED**_ to do is take out the trash."

* * *

 **A/N 2: Chapter title inspired by the Matt and Kim song of the same name.**


	6. Don't Let's Start

**Author's note:  
** **Well, it's only been about eight months since I updated. I hate that I got so lazy and side-tracked, but life has a weird ebb and flow so I've had a pretty full plate. Here we are though, chapter six. Kinda short, not really a lot of development here, but I have most of chapter seven written so hopefully it'll only take me five months to update instead of eight. Thanks for sticking around, folks. As always constructive criticism is always welcome.**

P.S. I have no idea what Central Park looks like so I don't know if you can even sit next to the JKO. I'm just winging it here.

* * *

" _We are somehow surrounded by the people we need in our lives. They're right in front of me. I can see them. I don't know how it happened that the four of us are here together in this place at this time right now. That part is a mystery to me. But I'm grateful that it happened."_

 _._

"Finally! Ugh, if I had to sit in that stupid room for another minute I would've lost my marbles!" Riley exclaimed as she spun around in place, the light from the midday sun bouncing off her earthy brown hair turning it a brilliant shade of caramel.

Lucas smiled wide like a Cheshire Cat, "I'm glad you're doing better." he said as he returned to skipping stones across Central Park's JKO Reservoir.

Riley blushed, it had become an involuntary reaction to Lucas' smile. "Thanks." she replied, "So, what are you and Maya gonna do tonight?"

Lucas flinched mid swing causing his last rock to hit the water with a defeated ***bloop*** "I think we're gonna go see a movie." He scowled as he turned towards the ground in search of more rocks to chuck.

"Oh yeah? Which one?"

Lucas shrugged, "I dunno. I wanted to go to that Audrey Hepburn festival Downtown, but Maya wants to go see this Japanese movie about giants that eat people."

Riley handed him the few coin-sized stones she could find and brushed her hands off on her pale blue jeans, "So you're gonna go watch giants eat people then." she said, a knowing smirk plastered on her adorable face.

"Yeah, looks like it." he sighed. As much as he liked Maya, Lucas knew their romantic relationship would never go past a few friendly dates and a pocketful of awkward conversations. Of course he could never tell Riley any of that, she would just tell him that he needed to explore his feelings more or that he was just getting cold feet or some other cookie-cutter advice that he just couldn't stomach.

"That's our Maya," Riley stated with a grin, "romance and comedy always makes way for gratuitous action."

"Yeah, it...it actually really bugs me."

"Huh? What does?"

"Maya never seems to go for anything romantic." he replied, chucking a handful of gravel into the water and watching the dozen micro ripples they made across the surface, "She doesn't like long walks in the park, she outright HATES flowers, and we never really have anything to talk about. Ever."

Riley took a seat at the edge of the reservoir and dipped a few slender fingers in the water. "Have you tried talking about her?" she suggested.

"Oh, that's when she REALLY clams up."

"What do you mean? She always talks to me."

"Yeah, but that's you." Lucas replied while taking a seat next to Riley, "Whenever I try to ask her about her mom or grandma or ANYTHING ELSE she just... _shuts down_. She absolutely clams up for, like, five minutes. I can't even get her to _grunt,_ let alone say any words."

"Well, maybe she'll open up to you after the movie? I don't know, she's not like that with me so I don't know what you could do." Secretly part of her was glad that Maya refused to talk about herself, if she continued to act closed off then soon Lucas would abandon their forcefully budding relationship and return to Riley. It was a horrible thing to think, totally out of character for Riley, but she couldn't help it. She tried vigorously to bury these wild emotions, these baneful musings against her best friend, but then Lucas would smile or laugh or just look at her with the intensity of a thousand suns and part of her would forget what "ring power" meant. She was still in control though, still at the wheel of the tanker truck that was teenage emotion. Maya and Lucas would get their chance and she wouldn't interfere.

"I guess I'll just have to play it by ear. Thanks, Riley." Lucas said, his usual knee-melting smile plastered across his face.

"Of course," Riley replied, her mental hands loosening their grip on the wheel, "anything for...my friends."

.

"Do we have to see the giants eat people?" Lucas asked futily while passing the pink and white bits of gloss paper over to the ticket taker.

Maya pointed at his nose, "You said I could pick the second date," she said with an adorably sadistic grin, "you said that."

Lucas' shoulders drooped in defeat, "I know, but giants? What about the boxing one?" he said pointing to the poster of a roided-out young man in American flag shorts, "Or the one about the hitman?"

"Nope!" she said, yanking the ticket stubs from his hand and placing them in her wallet as a souvenir, "It's man-eating giants I want and it's man-eating giants I'm gonna get!"

"Okay, okay." Lucas replied dejectedly. He fished out his wallet and pointed a thumb towards the snack line, "You want anything from the concession?"

"Some chocolate mints and a pack of peanut butter cups sound good."

Lucas scrunched his nose at her, "That's a lot of chocolate."

"So?"

"Nothing," he replied, shaking his head, " just making an observation."

"Well, maybe you should go observe your way into the line while I grab some seats." she said, fluttering her hand towards the growing concession line.

Lucas geared up to retort, but Maya had already run off and ducked into the auditorium.

.

As Maya dashed past a couple and an obese man with his arms full of popcorn she couldn't help but smile, she loved getting the last jab in when she teased Lucas and she knew how much it ate at him. She would smile and he would flush and it was the most fun she could have without vandalizing something.

She bounded up the LED-laced stairs and snagged a seat dead center of the seventh row from the top. She loved sitting high up, when she was younger she would look out over the sea of theater patrons and imagine convoluted backstories for many of them. Her nostalgia got the better of her as she began to scan the crowd.

 _Ex-Vegas showgirl who moved here to escape her mobster father,_ she thought as she watched a blue-haired old woman with what seemed to be her two teenage grandchildren.

 _Former NBA hopeful until he blew out his knee at the big game,_ she thought, smiling at the popcorn man.

 _And that's a-_ she stopped, her brain slamming on the emergency brakes. Sitting near the front was a boy, no older than her, with a mop of brown hair wearing a red turtleneck. _And that's the boy whose heart is breaking._

It wasn't, not really. The boy obviously wasn't Farkle, but he certainly raided his wardrobe. Maya shook her head, refusing to let the guilt jackhammer it's way into her head. She was going to see a monster movie with a handsome boy, she'd feel bad about it later.

.

 _Fantastic, ten out of ten, best date ever,_ Lucas thought sarcastically. As far as dates with Maya went, this one was probably the best, but considering their first and only date ended with him wearing his smoothie instead of drinking it that wasn't saying much. Still, he wasn't a quitter, he would power though as many dates as he needed to understand who it was that he really wanted to be with.

The concession line was longer than the the Great Wall of China, something atypical for a Sunday evening. Trying to relieve his boredom, Lucas scanned the theater lobby. He didn't recognize a soul until a diminutive brunette carrying a bucket of popcorn passed by him.

"Smakle, hi." he said, giving her a cordial wave.

Smackle gave him a wide grin before quickly composing herself. She gave him a curt nod, "Lucas. Are you stalking me?"

Lucas let out a jittery chuckle, "What? No, I'm he-"

"Because I will not tolerate your childish crush on me ruining my date."

"Geez, slow down," he said with his hands in a defensive position, "I'm here with Maya."

Smakle cast a dubious glare towards the cowboy, "Good cover. Now excuse me, don't want to keep my Farkle waiting."

.

It took Lucas a moment to find his date nestled into one of the many plush maroon theater seats. He smiled, finding it ironic that Maya would chose a seat so high up, like a proverbial queen sitting above her subjects. He took the steps two at a time and gently seated himself before offering two brightly packaged snack items to her. "Alright, one box of mints and a pack of cups."

"Thank ya kindly." Maya replied, tipping her imaginary cowboy hat.

"Will you ever stop doing that?"

"Nope." she said, pouring a generous helping of mints into her mouth.

Surprisingly, the two teens fell into a comfortable silence, Maya with her chocolates and Lucas with his popcorn. It was going well, much better than Lucas had initially thought. He took this opportunity to mentally map out the rest of the date; finish the movie (no small feat), talk about said movie on the way to dinner, hopefully have something to talk about _DURING_ dinner, then a courteous goodnight. As normal as that all seemed, it would take a Herculean effort on his part to make that all go smoothly. He was running topics to talk about though his noggin when he noticed Maya smiling and giggling silently.

"What's so funny?"

Maya's smile fell as she turned to her date, "Hm? Oh, I was just thinking, I bet Farkle could figure the ending to this movie out, too." She turned back to her sweets and began taking timid little nibbles from her peanut butter cups.

"Probably." Lucas agreed, "Why don't you ask him after? He's with Smakle in theater nine."

Maya's hand slipped, snapping her next peanut butter cup in two. "What do you mean 'he's with Smackle?'"

"I ran into Smakle getting snacks," Lucas explained between bites of popcorn, "her and Farkle are gonna go see that romantic comedy. Why? What's wrong?"

"Why is he with her?" she seethed, her box of mints now just a crumpled wad in her fist, "He doesn't even like-I mean, they're not-" Maya's anger and confusion were red-hot like a forger's kiln, Farkle was on a _DATE_ with Smakle? After everything he said, after telling her _SHE_ was the one he loved, he would turn around and go out with someone he claimed to have no romantic interest in? She was gonna throttle him! She would rip that stupid hoodie right off his back and tie him to a flagpole! She would-suddenly, Maya became acutely aware of a pair of green eyes boring into her head. The look of concern in Lucas' eyes reminded her of how Farkle would look at her when he knew something was eating at her.

"I...I can't do this," she finally choked out, "I gotta go." She hopped over the vacant seats in front of her and beelined it straight for the exit.  
Lucas dumped his popcorn and took off after her, "Wait, Maya. Maya!"

Three more feet, three more until Maya hit the theater's main doors and then she could bleed out into the crowd. She needed air, she needed to disappear, she needed to get away from it all before her head exploded. Suddenly there was a clamp on her arm, then a tug. She slipped around and twisted as hard as she could, but the clamp refused to let go. "Get off me!" she yelped.

"Maya, Maya relax!" Lucas pleaded, his steadfast grip applying constant pressure to her wrist, "What's wrong? Why are you freaking out?"

Maya twisted harder, breaking Lucas' grip and leaving her entire forearm sore. "Leave me alone, okay? I'll see you tomorrow." With that, she burst through the front doors and melted into the the busy sidewalk.

.

One cheesecake left to be placed in the fridge, one last drink to be refilled, and three tables left to wipe down before Ezra was free from his part-time chains. He moved like a man possessed, hands deftly organizing utensils and feet dancing around customers.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen someone move like that. Ever." Katy Hart said, totally ignoring the closing till and ledger in front of her, "You got a hot date or something to get to?"

Ezra shot a wink over to the mature blonde, "Why? You doing anything later?" he asked before returning to his work.

Katie just stood there as if someone had welded her to the ground. She tried her best not to blush, but there was just something so painfully charming about the boy. He was no Shawn Hunter mind you, but in about ten years he wouldn't be far off.

Ezra finished up his inside chores before turning to his outside ones. He had just passed the café's threshold when something akin to a flannel covered brick wall ran into him.

Thankfully Ezra was a bit more immovable than the average person. "Woah, woah! Friar? Where's the fire, man?" he asked, "You look like dirt, did you outrun a cheetah or something?"

"Ezra!" a sweat-soaked Lucas gasped, "Have you seen Maya?!"

Ezra shook his head and began stacking the chairs, "No, not today. Why? What did you do?"

"We were at the movies," he replied, "I saw Farkle and Smackle so I pointed them out and then Maya just took off."

Ezra stopped, a look of concern flashed across his face. "Oh. Well...heck, she's not in here. Did you check her house?"

"Not her house."

"Okay, you go check there, I'll ask around after I get off work and let you know if I find her."

"Okay." Lucan turned on his heels and dashed up the stairs before turning back towards Ezra. "Wait," he said perplexed, "why are you helping me?"

"Not helping _you_ ," Ezra replied with a shrug, "if anything happens to Maya it'll be your fault, which means Riley would never forgive you. I'm doing this for her."

And like that, a whopper of a puzzle piece fell into Lucas' lap. He wasn't stupid, but he was surprised it had taken him so long to see it; Ezra liked Riley. In a micron Lucas' blood was at full boil. How dare he, how dare this self-righteous thug harbor feelings for his sweet, angelic Riley! How dare-but she wasn't, she wasn't his, she had made that clear.

Deep breath, count to ten. This was not the time to lose his cool, Maya was still out there and like Ezra said; if anything happened to her, Riley would never forgive him.

Drip, drop, drip, drop, the tears of teenage turmoil and misery fell silently from their creator's face. She didn't understand, couldn't understand, why this malignant pit in her gut persisted. Farkle and Smackle, Farkle and Smackle, she couldn't get it out of her head. Like a virus the thought of them together infected her imagination. She imagined that they would show up to all future dances arm in arm, him looking distinguished in a navy blue three-piece Brioni suit, her glowing in an emerald green Ralph Lauren evening gown, they would be the envy of every poorly dressed teen in the history of teendom. She'd be there, obviously, dragged along by Riley like a puppy. She'd see them holding hands, dancing, laughing, and every second would be like a minute papercut on her heart until she bled out.

"So stupid! I can't believe it...I can't. Farkle, why? God, why?" The dam finally broke, a salty river cascaded down Maya's cheeks and ravaged what little mascara she had on. She didn't believe it, but the bottomless pit told her that Farkle was like her father now, a liar who abandoned her. It didn't make sense though, _why_ would this bother her so much? Farkle was free to do whatever he wanted, they weren't dating, they weren't a couple, so why did this eat at her like a piranha? _Because,_ she thought, _because I pushed him into it. You did this to yourself, Hart._

Ezra turned the corner and found Maya where he had left her, balled up next to the trash cans behind Topanga's café. "Maya? Hey. Hey, hey, hey, it's okay. I sent him on a goose chase." He fumbled around his pockets before producing a faded blue bandanna, "Here, you're ruining your makeup, love." He gently tilted Maya's tear streaked face upwards and gingerly wiped her face dry taking extra care to not smudge what was left of her mascara.

"Farkle and Smackle…" Maya managed to choke out.

"Yeah…" Ezra replied. He pocketed his bandana and brushed a stray lock of golden wheat hair behind her ear. "Want me to take you somewhere? There's an art exhibit down the street, it's supposed to be super posh, but my aunt went to school with the gallery's owner. Or I know this guy who's band is playing at The Cave tonight, we can go there. Or there's that Audrey Hepburn festival, if we hurry we can catch the last showing of Funny Face."

Maya shook her head at all the options.

"Want me to take you to Riley's?"

Another head shake.

"Well, you can't stay out here all night." He stood, zipped up his brown leather jacket, then reached down to pull Maya to her feet. "C'mon, I got a place."

* * *

 **A/N 2: Chapter title inspired by the They Might Be Giants song of the same name.  
A/N 3: I don't have a proof reader so please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors. This apology is retroactive for the previous chapters.**


	7. Mr E's Beautiful Blues

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, it's been a while. I finally finished editing this chapter which has been sitting in my Google Docs for almost eight months. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and I hope I can crank out another chapter before the year is up.**

* * *

"Alright, I'll tell you a story about my family.

"My father was a thief. He was a small time pickpocket, did some home invasion stuff like what you would see in the movies. He was pretty good at hiding it, too. Mom didn't even find out about it until well into the relationship. Anyway, one day he's out doing his magic act and he gets busted by an off-duty police officer. Dad gets chased through a few back yards and across a six-lane highway before they slap the cuffs on him. He gets two years in _Oh-Triple-See_ , that's ' _Oahu County Correctional Center'_ for everyone that wasn't born in Hawaii. My mother, God bless her, was left alone to take care of my brother Connor who was five at the time, but she's got her chin up because she thinks dad is gonna be out in six months with good behavior. There's a riot at the prison, things happen, dad picks up ten more years on a bunch of aggravated assault charges and they ship him off to somewhere in the Midwest because _Oh-Trips_ isn't set to handle long-term inmates.

"So the old man does his time, he comes back, mom feels sorry for him because she's a saint and probably a little stupid, and he sticks around long enough for them to have me. I'm about...four? No, five months old when dad comes home one night dripping with sweat and a bag full of jewelry and stuff over his shoulder, him and his buddies just cleaned out a house up in Kahala which is kind of the upper middle/low upper class area of the island. So mom absolutely flips her lid because dad swore up and down that he'd never do his magic act ever again for as long as he lived and she kicks him out, right to the curb. He moves to Vegas to live with a grandma I've never met and I don't ever see him again until after mom's funeral.

"Eventually the grandma I've never met dies so dad moves again and starts doing construction work in Seattle. Things are going great for him until one day something happens at the site he's laying rebar at, lift failure drops something on him, totally screws up his knee. He can't work anymore so he gets worker's comp, decent pension, all that. Now Connor, who is actually old enough to remember our father, goes to take care of him despite protests from our mother and in return dad invests in Connor's dream of running a food joint. Sub sandwiches, cheese fritters, all sorts of crazy stuff. Flash-forward six years and one funeral later and I'm living with them on a trial basis since they're the closest family I got. One day, summer break I think, I get back from helping out at Connor's shop and dad says something to me, I think I had left something out and it spoiled, I don't remember. So I scream at him because I'm fourteen and angry, he tries to reprimand me and I pop him once in his bad leg, just drill straight into it, snap his leg brace like a twig. I do it because who is he? All I know about him is that he's some broken old man who abandoned his family. He's not my father, he's just some dude. He hasn't earned the right to tell me what to do because he was never there in the first place.

"Next thing I know I'm getting shipped off again to live with my aunt here and all the contact I get from my brother is a monthly phone call and a couple of texts a week. Last I heard he started seeing this chick named Melanie who's ten years younger than him, but I've never met her and I don't even know what she looks like."

Maya stared at Ezra dumbstruck; her bowl of chocolate gelato was now a just a melted blob under the warm halogen lamps of Ezra's kitchen. They had ended up at his apartment after Ezra found her crying outside Topanga's café. Ezra's aunt wasn't home and he promised he wouldn't tell anyone she was there.

Dinner, which was cooked by Ezra, consisted of scrambled eggs, country sausage (only slightly burnt), and an entire loaf of raisin bread toast. Maya spent most of the meal between baring her heart out and shoveling mounds of egg into her adorable mouth. Ezra just smiled, listening intently to her concerns, her fears, her confusion, and finally the problems in her home life. Not once did Ezra laugh, cough, interrupt, or try to offer advice. Once the food had been eaten and all was said he simply put the dishes into the dishwasher and told her to go to his room and pick out a movie.

Ezra's room was a cluttered mess of boxes and movie memorabilia. His bed took up most of the blue walled room while a single wooden desk without a chair blocked off the room's only closet. Sitting above the bed were two shelves. The higher one was packed to the ends with DVDs and Blu-Rays, all kinds of titles ranging from 60's crime-dramas to Korean soap operas. The bottom shelf however only held three items; a large statue of a mutant dinosaur eating a train, a blue cylindrical robot with a pointy nose, and a highly detailed model of a battleship with a giant gold drill adorning the bow. Maya made a mental note to ask Ezra about these things later and went about picking out a movie.

She returned to the kitchen with three choices, a crime-drama, a monster movie, and one romantic comedy, and took a seat at the counter.

Ezra placed a heaping bowl of gelato in front of her while he opted for a few chocolate-filled croissants and a cup of black coffee. "Huh, I would've never thought you'd pick these." Ezra said while eyeing over her cinematic choices.

Maya shrugged, "I've never seen any of these so I picked them. What's a _'Gamera'_ anyway?"

Ezra laughed, "Oh, you're gonna learn tonight."

Maya picked up her utensil with one hand while making a " _bring it on"_ motion with the other. As she placed the first spoonful of the cold confection in her mouth though Maya couldn't help but feel a little guilty, Ezra had been nothing but kind to her and all she had done was talked his ear off so far. She decided to take a page out of the Riley Matthews playbook and asked him about his problems, his home life, hoping in some way to return the hospitality he had shown her. At first he declined, saying he didn't want to bore her, but Maya persisted.

"Alright," he finally said with a smile, "I'll tell you a story about my family."

.

"Come on, pick up!" Riley shrieked as she jabbed the hang up button on her phone. She had been pacing her room for a solid two hours after she learned about the argument between Maya and Lucas. This had been the fourth time Riley dialed her friend's number in the last five minutes, every time it would ring twice before getting sent to voicemail. She couldn't decide what was more infuriating, not knowing where her best friend was or knowing that her best friend didn't want to be found. Riley muttered a string of unintelligible expletives before texting Maya again. Finally, after almost three hours of pacing, texting, and calling, Riley's phone chirped out a response.

 _EZRA: Riley, don't worry, Maya's with me. Just had dinner. I promise she's fine, she just needs some time to herself. BTW, does she like chocolate?_

Riley was stunned, why would she be with Ezra? After everything that happened he'd be the last person she'd want to see. Riley bit her bottom lip and tried to think of a response.

 _RILEY: Where are you two? Everyone's looking for her! Did she lose her phone?_

 **Chirp**

 _EZRA: She has her phone, I heard it buzz a few times. Like I said she just needs some space. I promise everything is fine and we'll both explain it to you tomorrow. Tell her mom she's okay. Now, I'm about to give her a heap of really expensive chocolate gelato and I would like it to not go to waste._

Riley sighed, it still drove her mad knowing that Maya wanted to be alone, but there was at least some comfort knowing she was with Ezra. Riley couldn't help but wonder what was eating her best friend, from what Lucas said the fight wasn't about anything important, it could barely be considered a fight at all. Maybe she couldn't fix this one, maybe she just had to put her faith in Ezra and hope everything would turn out okay like he said. Tapping out a final message Riley decided that it was time to get some sleep.

 _RILEY: Okay, I trust you. And yes, Maya loves chocolate, ESPECIALLY gelato. I guess this is goodnight then, I'll see you at school tomorrow. Sweet dreams, Ezra._

 **Chirp**

 _EZRA: Muah! Goodnight, princess._

An infectious smile crept across Riley's face as she pulled her covers over her. Ezra would fix this somehow, Riley had faith in him.

.

"No, no, it's three rotations." Ezra said as he flicked his titanium-handled butterfly knife closed and demonstrated the technique again. After telling Maya his story the mood in the room became uncomfortable to say the least. Not wanting to drag her down even further, Ezra disappeared into his room for some time before returning with a smile on his face and a training knife in his hand.

Maya watched intently as Ezra deftly rotated his wrist and caught the knife's bite handle with a loud **clack.** "So one," -she flicked the trainer open- "two," -rotated her wrist- "three!" The trainer's handles clacked against each other and a giant grin formed on her face.

"There you go!" Ezra laughed. He spun his _very_ real blade around his thumb before closing it. "I'll teach you that next."

"How did you get into balisong flipping anyway?" Maya asked as she repeated the motions she just did to close the fake knife. "I mean, well, you're like what? Fifteen? How would you even get one of these?"

"I'm not proud of it, but before they sent me here I stole my brother's Benchmade." he replied, motioning to the blade in his hand.

"Wow. He never found out?" Maya asked.

Ezra shrugged, "Probably, it is a four-hundred dollar knife after all. He had like three model forty-two's so I took one. He never mentioned it being missing though. I'm sure my aunt's called to yell at him about it before, but she hasn't said anything about it either."

Maya gently pried the knife from Ezra's hand and gingerly opened it. "You should send it back to him."

"Probably," Ezra replied, "when I get the money for a new one I'll give it back to him. For now though, I'm going to use it to teach you a _'zen rollover.'_ "

.

Farkle paced an infinity symbol into the gray carpet of his plush room in the even more plush Minkus Manor penthouse. He had been pacing for the better part of the night, unable to just sit still. He wanted to scream, but every time his mouth opened his voice would turn into a yelp. The only time he broke the infinity loop was to pick up his phone from where he repeatedly tossed it on his disheveled bed, dial two numbers and hang up on both of them, then fire off a hastily tapped out text message before tossing the phone on the same spot on his bed and resume pacing.

The date with Isadora had gone well, fairly routine by teenage standards. The movie they chose was good, though distressingly predictable (the fish-out-of-water protagonist and the beautiful-yet-unwanted love interest sail away from their small town), and the bistro they ended up at after the film served the best _steak tartare_ and _pate de foie_ he ever had inside the U.S. Yes, it had all gone well until Farkle retrieved his phone from his jacket pocket and turned it back on.

"Oh…"

 _LUCAS: 7 missed calls_

 _RILEY: 12 missed calls_

After making his way home and returning his friend's calls, the pacing began. He called Maya's phone, Maya's mother's phone, he even found Shawn's number through the magazine he occasionally worked for, but all of it was for not. Maya didn't want to be found and it drove Farkle mad. He tried everything,calling, texting, he even tried tracking her phone, but all he could tell was that she was still in the city.

Finally, Farkle stopped mid stride. He turned, picked up his jacket and phone, and called a cab.

.

"I don't get it," Maya said, the romantic comedy's final credits rolling over the TV's high definition screen, "Duckie was clearly the one who loved her the most! He would've given anything to be with her and she STILL chose the rich guy! What an idiot!"

"Trust me, I didn't like the ending either." Ezra replied as he fished out the last few popcorn kernels from the giant blue and white ceramic bowl on his lap.

"Duckie was funny, he was a snappy dresser, and Andie meant the world to him. I wish I-" Maya's voice caught in her throat, she knew how hypocritical it would be to finish that sentence.

Ezra arched an eyebrow in her direction, "You wanna finish your thought?"

Maya shook her head, "Not really. Can...can we just refill the popcorn and watch the next movie?"

Ezra kept his gaze on her, wondering if he should push for an answer. They had been doing well since both teens had told each other their life stories, finding a strange mutual respect for one another through their pre-teen hardships, it would be a shame if he ruined it. Instead, he picked up the bowl and headed for the kitchen.

Maya let out a sigh that she didn't know she was holding in. There was a shake in her bones, a paranoia that if she had finished her sentence her world would cave in on her. _I wish I had someone who loves me like that_. She had that though, before she threw it away for a handsome cowboy she had mixed feelings for.

It was too much, too much pain and regret and stupidity for Maya to take. Quickly, she reached for a large leather-bound book that lay on the coffee table and hoped that it contained something that would adequately distract her from the turmoil in her brain.  
It wasn't words that Maya found in the book though, but rather pictures, both black and white and in color, spanning generations of what Maya assumed to be Ezra's family. The first few pages were nothing but grayscale photos, portraits of a distinguished couple clad in traditional Japanese wedding garb, a few candid shots of the couple at a secluded beach, and school pictures of two young girls wearing pigtails. The next pages were in color, the two girls from the previous pages now grown up and wearing flower crowns and bellbottoms and holding matching Rickenbacker guitars. The distinguished couple now looked tired and worn, slowly drifting away from each other as the pictures went on. Then there was a boy, blonde and handsome, with an old boombox in one hand while his other was snaked around the waist of one of the girls.

Baby pictures were next, adorable bundles of Asian eyes with mops of black hair. The woman, Ezra's mother, was glowing as she held his brother Connor in her arms. Next to it was a picture of Connor, now a teenager, holding his newborn brother in his arms with all the pride and energy a father would have. Their father, the blonde with the boombox, sat behind them, his arm outstretched to hold the camera.

Maya's smile slowly crept back across her face with the turn of every page. If she didn't know any better she would've thought the family in the book lived happily ever after. Her smile wavered as she came the the last filled in page. There was at least a third of the book left blank which was unfortunate, so many images left untaken. The last picture though, bigger than the others, was of the two brothers, Connor in front holding a maroon Les Paul guitar and Ezra in the back jamming out on his cherry red Flying V. They were on a dark stage in a smoky room, Connor yelling into a microphone while their female drummer who was barely in frame thrashed about wildly.

" _That was at Barboza in Seattle."_

Startled, Maya turned towards the voice and found Ezra standing behind her, a full bowl of popcorn in his hands.

"Sorry." Maya said sheepishly, "I didn't mean-"

Ezra placed the bowl on the coffee table and pointed at the picture, "That guitar right there," he said, tapping on the Les Paul, "that sucker was the first thing I learned how to play ' _Dancing With Myself'_ on."

Maya studied the instrument with more attention than she had ever put into one of Mr. Matthews' lessons. The guitar, she noted, had a silver Bigsby brand vibrato tailpiece, black and gold control knobs, and a silver pickguard with hibiscus flowers engraved on it.

"It's beautiful." Maya said, remembering the faded dandelions on the pickguard of her great grandmother's acoustic. "Is it your brother's?"

Ezra nodded, "Yep, he's had ' _Prudence'_ since he was maybe twelve."

"He named his guitar _PRUDENCE_?"

"After the song." Ezra replied, "It took him forever to learn his basic chords, took him even longer to get her to sound like a million dollar guitar. Pru is a knock-off, cheap pick-ups, broken selector switch, but my uncle bought it for dirt and gave it to Connor to give him something to focus on, something to keep him out of trouble."

"Did your mom and aunt name their guitars?"

He shrugged, "My aunt says she didn't. She pawned hers to buy a bus ticket away from my grandparents as soon as she turned eighteen. My mom named hers ' _Lucy'_ because she always felt sky high whenever she played. I named mine ' _Eleanor.'_ "

"Like Eleanor Rigby?"

He nodded in response.

"Well that's kinda depressing."

Ezra laughed, "You have no idea." He took the album from Maya and placed it back on the table. "Do you play at all?" he asked.

"Yeah, a little," she replied, "I got an acoustic at home that I pluck on sometimes."

"Huh." Ezra said. A wicked grin tugged at the corners of his mouth, "You wanna play something now?"

.

Riley had been sitting patiently in her father's classroom on his desk for the better part of an hour, or at least it was an hour in her time. It was all just a dream of course, the room was far too clean and the clock's hands moved at an alarming speed and there were entirely too many chairs. With a fanciful wave Riley dismissed the excessive seats back from whence they came and smiled at the four remaining ones. It was her perfect world, just enough chairs for the people she cared about in her favorite room outside of her home. This was the first lucid dream she could remember having, not including the super romantic Lucas one that she never told a soul about.

Riley had begun pirouetting around the chairs when a soft, yet frantic knocking pulled her out of dreamspace. Lumbering like a zombie, she made her way to the window and clumsily cracked it open.

"Farkle? What are you doing here?" she asked, still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Farkle waved his phone and gave a nervous grin, "I called, you didn't pick up."

Groggily, Riley shuffled to her nightstand where her phone sat charging. Her eyes threatened to bug out of her head when she saw the number displayed on it's screen. "You called me a lot." she replied embarrassed.

Farkle's default smile persisted, "Did you find out where Maya is?"

Riley paused, she wanted to lie to her brainy friend so badly. She wanted to slap that goofy smile off his face and replace it with some common sense. "Yes." she finally said, her uncharacteristic urges successfully quelled.

Farkle reinforced his smile, trying not to show his impatience, "Are you gonna tell me?"

"Well," she replied, fidgeting with the hem of her purple pajama top, "I don't know where she is, but I know who she's with and that she's safe."

"What-Riley, who is she with?"

"She's fine, she's safe, go home, Farkle. I promise I'll tell you everything tomorrow." she replied. She gingerly rubbed his left shoulder, hoping that the show of affection would calm her friend down. Unfortunately it had the opposite outcome.

Farkle hastily brushed her hand away, "No! Riley, why are you keeping secrets from me?"

Riley's initial reaction was to respond in kind. An accusing finger pointed in his direction, a string of accusations. How dare he be upset when it was his actions that pushed Maya to her emotional breaking point. That wasn't right though, Riley would never do that to her friend no matter how upset she was at him. Composing herself, she folded her hands in her lap and put on her most diplomatic poker face, "Farkle, do you know why she took off like she did? Lucas saw you and Smackle at the movies. She left because she found out that you two are seeing each other. When did you even decide this? When did you suddenly decide to go out with her?"

"Saturday," he replied coldly, "I decided Saturday."

"But why though? You love Maya, you would never do anything to hurt her and yet here you are! Farkle, what happened to you?"

"She went off and chose Lucas, I just decided to not wait around."

"But you do wait around! You waited for me and Maya for almost seven years! What happened, what made you change?"

"I don't know. I just didn't want to be alone."

"That's incredibly stupid."

"Ezra's sentiments were about the same."  
"Wait, Ezra knew?"

"He tried to talk me out of it."

"You should have listened."  
Farkle gently pulled himself away from the window sill, his gut echoing Riley's last statement. He should have listened. "I'm sorry I woke you up, Riley. Sweet dreams."

.

"Wow, that was…."

Maya stared at Ezra with bated breath, "Was what? Bad?"

"Amazing." he replied, a smile and a slight blush adorning his face, "You're amazing."

Maya's cheeks flushed a similar shade of red as she placed Elanor back into her hardcase, "No I'm not." she said though a melancholy smile.

Ezra threw up a well manicured finger and began tracing circles in the air, "Ah, there it is again. Self deprecation is a horrible color on you." He gently set his mother's guitar on the plush suede couch and turned back to his blonde guest, "Listen, there's that talent show thing after the Winter break, would you...be interested in being my lead guitarist?"

"Lead?" she asked doubtfully, "That's not really-why aren't you lead?"

Ezra casually shrugged, "I'll be singing and I'm not good at juggling both." After a moment of silence he continued, "I already got a drummer and I got my sights on a bassist. I got a song picked out and a place to practice after school, I just need you to say yes. You're already familiar with Eleanor and the lead stuff isn't crazy complica-"

Maya swiftly put her hand against his lips, "Yes, Ezra. Yes, I'll do it."

"Yes!" he shouted. Without thinking he grabbed her wrist and placed a comically sloppy kiss on her palm. "I love you so much right now!" Instantly Ezra knew he had made a mistake, "Oh. Oh, Maya, I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. It's-I thought he was different."

"Different than who?"

She shook her head and gave him her most high-class fake smile, "Nevermind, I don't want to talk about it. How about you start teaching me that song?"

"Maya, what Farkle did was stupid and idiotic and I told him that it would hurt you. I don't and will never stand by what he did, but you chose to explore your feelings for Lucas after Farkle told you how he felt. Can you really blame him for not wanting to be in pain? I'm gonna go get the sheet music and we'll start, okay?"

Maya nodded, pulling herself into a more comfortable playing position. She tried to ignore the ton of emotional bricks Ezra's words had left in her stomach. Objectively speaking, if a guy had done to her what she did to Farkle she would've made his life a living Hell. Maybe she was the bad guy in this situation. She shook her head and focused on tuning the guitar in her lap and making sure she was ready to blow Ezra away with her musical talent again.

Ezra came back with a stand and a music book and placed both in front of Maya, "You ready?" he asked rhetorically.

The song started low, a barely there rumble of two chords, raising is decibels like a bear waking from its slumber. Ezra began to sing softly, like a gentle winter breeze. His voice warmed as he and Maya progressed though the song, ultimately transforming into an animalistic growl as their guitars screamed to match his tone. Individual chords melted into each other as the players reached the height of the songs crescendo before returning to the rumble it started with.

For never having heard the song Ezra picked out Maya had gotten through with it with surprising ease. She had played the wrong chord only a handful of times, but besides that it was practically a piece of cake for her. She again returned the cherry red Flying V guitar to its case and sheepishly turned to her new bandmate, "Hey, I, um...thanks for doing this. For me, I mean. Letting me stay here and stuff. You didn't owe me anything, but you're helping anyway. I'm not-I don't think I'm worth it though"

Ezra scoffed, "Of course you are. Maya, you're amazing when you don't let yourself get in the way."

"Heh, Farkle said the same thing to me once." she said, melancholy as ever.

"Well, you should listen to him, he can be pretty smart sometimes." He smiled his little crooked smile before turning to the black minimalist wall clock next to the kitchen, "Oh man, it's almost two. We should get some sleep."

"Why? It's not like we're doing anything tomorrow."

Ezra gave her a guilty shrug, "I promised Riley that we'd talk to her tomorrow which means that we both need to go to school."

Maya's hand snapped out and caught Ezra's wrist, "Wait, you told Riley I was with you?"

"Relax," he replied, gently prying her kung-fu grip off his arm, "I didn't tell her where we were, I just told her you were with me so she would stop worrying. She worries about you a lot."

"She does." Maya paused and she mulled over her next sentence, "Do you...like her?"

"Well, yeah, I like both of you."

"You know what I mean." Maya replied, hoping for a straight answer.

"I'll take the couch, you can take my bed." Ezra replied. He knew he liked Riley more than just as friends, but without knowing how he stood with Sarah the most certain answer he had was none at all.

"How about this;" she countered, "we watch this last movie, we sleep in, and then we get to school by lunch. We can talk to Riley then, okay? Besides, I've missed one Japanese monster film tonight, I don't want to miss another."

Ezra smiled before pointing at the guitar cases, "Deal, but you gotta help me put away all the gear."

* * *

 **A/N 2: Chapter title taken from the song with the same by The Eels.**

 **Ezra's monologue was inspired by the one given by Frank (played by James Caan) in the 1981 film Thief.**


End file.
